LUMBERTON, N.C., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Two North Carolina half brothers who have spent their entire adult lives in prison are innocent of the gruesome 1983 rape and murder of an 11-year-old girl, a judge said. Henry McCollum and Leon Brown were ordered released at a hearing Tuesday. Prison officials kept them behind bars for one more night, saying they needed to be processed. Supporters in the courtroom cheered and wept when Superior Court Judge Doug Sasser issued the order for release. The brothers, both with mental disabilities, were convicted and sentenced to death after confessing to the murder of Sabrina Buie, whose body was found in a soybean field near Red Springs, her underpants stuffed down her throat. After new trials in the early 1990s, McCollum, 19 at the time of the killing, was sentenced to death again, while his brother, who was 15 in 1983, was sentenced to life in prison for rape. Johnson Britt, the current district attorney in Robeson County, said the DNA of another man, found on a cigarette near Sabrina's body, effectively destroyed the case. "Time and time again, confessions have proven to be insufficient and at times inaccurate," Britt said. The case was … Continue reading →

Jonathan Drew, The Associated Press Published Wednesday, September 3, 2014 10:43AM EDT LUMBERTON, N.C. -- New DNA evidence has freed a death-row inmate and his half-brother after they spent three decades in prison for rape and murder. A judge overturned the convictions of Henry McCollum, 50, and Leon Brown, 46, after another man's DNA was discovered on a cigarette butt left near the body of a girl the siblings were convicted of killing in 1983. Tuesday's ruling is the latest twist in a notorious legal case that began with what defence attorneys said were coerced confessions from two scared teenagers with low IQs. McCollum was 19 at the time and Brown was 15. Superior Court Judge Douglas Sasser said the new DNA results contradicted the case prosecutors put forward. He said he was vacating their convictions and ordering their release "based on significant new evidence that they are, in fact, innocent." The DNA from the cigarette butts doesn't match Brown or McCollum, and fingerprints taken from a beer can at the scene aren't theirs either, attorneys say. No physical evidence connects them to the crime. Both were initially given death sentences, which were overturned. At a second trial, McCollum was … Continue reading →

Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only Newswise The ability to accurately repair DNA damaged by spontaneous errors, oxidation or mutagens is crucial to the survival of cells. This repair is normally accomplished by using an identical or homologous intact sequence of DNA, but scientists have now shown that RNA produced within cells of a common budding yeast can serve as a template for repairing the most devastating DNA damage a break in both strands of a DNA helix. Earlier research had shown that synthetic RNA oligonucleotides introduced into cells could help repair DNA breaks, but the new study is believed to be the first to show that a cells own RNA could be used for DNA recombination and repair. The finding provides a better understanding of how cells maintain genomic stability, and if the phenomenon extends to human cells, could potentially lead to new therapeutic or prevention strategies for genetic-based disease. The research was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health and the Georgia Research Alliance. The results were scheduled to be reported September 3, 2014, in the journal Nature. We have found that genetic information can flow from RNA to DNA in a homology-driven … Continue reading →