Conviction review
Convictions that were overturned, and innocence claims courts are ruling on this week. Read what the evidence was and where it broke.
Henry McCollum and Leon Brown
Henry Lee McCollum (born March 26, 1964) and Leon Brown (born November 24, 1967) are two African American men who were wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death for a murder they did not commit. McCollum and Brown were two intellectually disabled teenage brothers, 19 and 15 years old respectively, when a local of Robeson County, North Carolina, implicated them in the 1983 rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina…
1987 · North CarolinaOverturnedDarryl Hunt
Darryl Hunt (February 24, 1965 – March 13, 2016) was an African-American man from Winston-Salem, North Carolina, who, in 1984, was wrongfully convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and the murder of Deborah Sykes, a young white newspaper copy editor. After being convicted in that case, Hunt was tried in 1987 for the 1983 murder of Arthur Wilson, a 57-year-old black man of Winston-Salem. Both…
1998 · North CarolinaOverturnedAlan Gell
James Alan Gell (born June 30, 1974, in North Carolina) is an American who was wrongfully convicted of first-degree murder in 1998 and sentenced to death in Bertie County, North Carolina, at the age of 22. He served nine years as an inmate on death row before being acquitted in a second trial in 2004; he was freed from prison and exonerated that year. He was the 113th person to be freed from death row in the United…
1995 · North CarolinaOverturnedDontae Sharpe
Dontae Sharpe (born 1975) is an African American from North Carolina who was wrongly convicted of murdering a white man and spent 26 years in prison for a crime he did not commit. He was exonerated and released from prison in 2019, and given a full pardon in 2021. Sharpe was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 1995 for the murder of George Radcliffe.
1985 · North CarolinaOverturned
Eastburn family murders
In May 1985, Kathryn Eastburn and her daughters, Kara and Erin, were murdered in Fayetteville, North Carolina. In 1986, United States Army Sergeant Timothy Hennis was tried and convicted for the three murders. In 1988, Hennis's conviction was overturned on appeal, and he was acquitted the following year.
1976 · North CarolinaOverturnedJoseph Sledge
Joseph Sledge Jr. (1942 – December, 1, 2020) was an American man who was wrongly convicted of the 1976 murders of 74-year-old Josephine Davis and 57-year-old Aileen Davis, for which he was imprisoned for over 36 years before being exonerated by new DNA evidence. His case represents the longest duration of incarceration for a case that has been overturned by DNA evidence, and he was the longest-serving inmate to have…
1971 · North CarolinaOverturned
Wilmington Ten
The Wilmington Ten were nine young men and a woman who were wrongfully convicted in 1971 in Wilmington, North Carolina, United States, of arson and conspiracy. Most were sentenced to 29 years in prison, and all ten served nearly a decade in jail before an appeal won their release. The case became an international cause célèbre, in which many critics of the city and state characterized the activists as political…
2016 · North CarolinaExonerated 2016Darryl Howard
On Sept. 2, 2016, Darryl Howard was exonerated after the Durham District Attorney’s Office dismissed his double-murder and arson charges.
1995 · North CarolinaExonerated 1995Ronald Cotton
In 1995, Ronald Cotton was exonerated of a rape in North Carolina, after spending over 10 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
2016 · North CarolinaExonerated 2016Timothy Bridges
Timothy Bridges served 25 years for a rape and burglary he didn't commit, largely based on erroneous testimony of a state hair analyst.
2004 · North CarolinaExonerated 2004Darryl Hunt
At 19 years old, Darryl Hunt was arrested, charged, and convicted of a 1984 North Carolina murder he didn't commit.