(CNN) A federal jury has awarded $75 million to two brothers in North Carolina, decades after they were convicted of rape and murder they did not commit.
Leon Brown and Henry McCollum were arrested in 1983 and spent nearly 31 years in prison before the half-brothers were exonerated in 2014.
The jury awarded them $31 million each in compensatory damages -- that's $1 million for each year they were incarcerated.
They will also receive an additional $13 million total in punitive damages, according to court documents.
Brown and McCollum were arrested and charged in 1983 with the rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie in Red Springs, North Carolina, CNN previously reported.
The brothers filed a civil rights lawsuit in 2015 against local officials involved in the original case.
About 50% of the wrongfully convicted people in the registry identify as Black and less than 10% are women. »
