Attorney: Robeson County not liable for any part of $9 million settlement in wrongful conviction lawsuit

The Robesonian, Lumberton, N.C.
·3 min read

May 15—LUMBERTON — Robeson County will pay no part of the $9 million settlement awarded two men who were wrongfully convicted of a 1983 rape and murder, and imprisoned for more than 30 years each.

"Zero county money paid in that settlement," said Rob Davis, Robeson County attorney.

The settlement was reached Thursday night with Henry McCollum and Leon Brown, who were convicted for raping and killing 11-year-old Sabrina Buie, according to Davis. The county attorney was at the trial before Judge Terrence Boyle in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina in Raleigh. Davis was there to represent the county's interests and to take part in settlement negotiations as needed.

The two men were freed from prison in 2014 after DNA evidence indicated that another man raped and killed Buie and were later pardoned. In 2015 they began pursuing a legal case. Their lawsuit named former Robeson County Sheriff Ken Sealey, who was a detective with the Red Springs Police Department at the time of the 1983 investigation; Robeson County; the town of Red Springs; Leroy Allen; Kenneth Snead; Garth Locklear; Larry Floyd and the late Red Springs Police Chief Luther Haggins. Locklear worked for the Robeson County Sheriff's Office, Floyd worked alongside Sealey, and Snead and Allen with the State Bureau of Investigation.

"They wanted the county to put some on the table, and there was a time when that was being considered," Davis said.

But, no county taxpayer money will be used to pay the settlement, Davis said. It will be paid primarily by the two insurance companies that covered the county and its municipalities at the time of the crime: Western World Insurance Group and the North Carolina Association of County Commissioners Risk Pool

Travelers, which provides insurance coverage for the county now, agreed to put in a little money "out of an abundance of caution," Davis said. The concern was the settlement would include the wrongful conviction and some or all of the time the two men spent in prison, thus making Travelers liable for an equal share of the settlement.

Jim Morgan was the trial attorney, and he did a "bang-up job," Davis said. Morgan put Robeson County in a position where the county didn't have to pay out any money.

The lawsuit against the state had gone to the jury Friday afternoon. As of The Robesonian's Friday evening deadline there was no official word on what decision the jury had reached. But, Davis said he had received word from people at the trial Friday indicating the jury had awarded a settlement of $75 million on behalf of Brown and McCollum.

McCollum was 19, and Brown was 15 when Buie was killed. The two men's attorneys argued they were scared, had low IQs and were berated by investigators who fed them details about the crime before they signed confessions saying they were part of a group that killed the girl.

The attorneys claimed Sealey and Snead physically and verbally threatened McCollum into confessing to the crime.

The two were initially given death sentences. In 1988, the state Supreme Court threw out their convictions and ordered new trials. McCollum was again sent to death row, and Brown was found guilty of rape and sentenced to life.

But no physical evidence connected them to the crime. DNA on a cigarette at the scene didn't match either one of them. Fingerprints on a beer can weren't theirs either.

A break in the case happened after the North Carolina Innocence Inquiry Commission got involved several years ago and had new DNA analysis done on evidence from the crime scene.

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