Josh Zach of WPTF radio recently interviewed Vernetta Alston with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation and Ballard Everett with North Carolina Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty, on the release of Henry McCollum after he spent 30 years on death row. The interview is broken up to run over several days and gives great insight into the efforts that were needed to free Henry and some of the problems with the current system.
Segment I
A judge on Sept. 2nd vacated the convictions of Henry McCollum and Leon Brown for the 1983 rape and slaying of 11 year old Sabrina Buie because new evidence points to another man. To revisit the case, Josh Zach sat down for an in-depth discussion with the attorney who represented McCollum in his exoneration … Vernetta Alston with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation.
Segment II
A judge on Sept. 2nd vacated the convictions of Henry McCollum and Leon Brown for the 1983 rape and slaying of 11 year old Sabrina Buie because new evidence points to another man, Roscoe Artis, who has a long criminal record and lived just feet from the crime scene. To revisit the case, Josh Zach sat down for an in-depth discussion with Vernetta Alston, an attorney with the Center for Death Penalty Litigation who represented McCollum in his exoneration.
Segment III
A North Carolina judge in early September exonerated Henry McCollum and Leon Brown in the 1983 rape and slaying of an 11 year old girl, that after new evidence points to another man. Josh Zach sat down for an in-depth discussion with death penalty opponent Ballard Everett, and McCollum’s lawyer, Vernetta Alston, to discuss the rush to judgment by police and prosecutors in 1983 to convict the men who, at the time, were teenagers.
Segment IV
Earlier this month a North Carolina judge exonerated two men for the 1983 rape and slaying of an 11 year old girl, that after new evidence points to another man. Josh Zach asked Ballard Everett — a lawyer, and a conservative, who believes the death penalty should be replaced with life without parole — about the likelihood that more cases like Henry McCollum’s and Leon Brown’s exist.
Segment V
In early September a North Carolina judge exonerated two men for the 1983 rape and slaying of an 11 year old girl, that after new evidence points to another man. One of the men freed, Henry McCollum, spent much of his 30 years in jail on death row. Ballard Everett is a lawyer — and a conservative — who believes the death penalty should be replaced with life without parole, and he tells Josh Zach the McCollum case is proof that current system is flawed.
Henry McCollum is declared innocent. Photo by Jenny Warburg
