Pardoned pair to get $1million

for three decades in the killing of an 11-year-old girl. But for one of them, the windfall isn’t the issue.

“It ain’t about money,” said Henry McCollum, 51, who, along with his 47-yearold brother, Leon Brown, was pardoned by Gov. Pat McCrory. “It was about just being able to see that I was innocent of a crime I was charged with. It was just a blessing to be out here, to live a normal life.”

McCrory’s office announced Friday that he had signed the pardons.

Defense attorneys have said the brothers were scared teenagers who had low IQs when they were questioned by police and coerced into confessing. McCollum was then 19, and Brown was 15.

No physical evidence connects them to the crime, a judge and prosecutor acknowledged last fall.