RALEIGH, N.C. – Two brothers will receive more than $1 million from the state of North Carolina after they were wrongfully imprisoned for the killing of an 11-year-old girl, but for one of them, the windfall isn't the issue.
Fifty-one-year-old Henry McCollum says the important thing is that he and brother Leon Brown have been found innocent.
He says it is a blessing to be free and living a normal life.
The pardon qualifies each of the brothers for $50,000 from the state for every year they were imprisoned, with a limit of $750,000 each. The compensation still needs to be approved by a state agency, but it is considered a formality. It's not clear exactly when they could get the money.
McCrory's office announced Friday that he signed the pardons.
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