Man freed from prison after three decades

Henry McCollum walks out of prison after being released from Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014. Henry McCollum spent more than 30 years on death row for a rape and murder new DNA evidence suggest may have been committed by another man. (AP Photo/Michael Biesecker)

Henry McCollum walks out of prison after being released from Central Prison in Raleigh, N.C., on Wednesday, Sept. 3, 2014. Henry McCollum spent more than 30 years on death row for a rape and murder new DNA evidence suggest may have been committed by another man. (AP Photo/Michael Biesecker)

Published Sep 4, 2014

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Raleigh, North Carolina -

A death row inmate has been freed after spending decades prison, a day after a judge overturned his conviction because of new DNA evidence in the case.

Fifty-year-old Henry McCollum walked out of Central Prison in Raleigh on Wednesday.

He hugged his mother and thanked God for his release.

His half-brother, 46-year-old Leon Brown, also had his conviction in a 1983 rape and murder overturned on Tuesday.

Brown was expected to be freed later on Wednesday.

McCollum spoke briefly to reporters before getting into the passenger seat of his father's car, where a reporter had to show him how to buckle the seat belt. He had never used a seat belt of that design. - Sapa-AP

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