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Joe Freeman Britt is an American attorney and judge who developed a national reputation as a tough prosecutor, and for successfully pursuing a large number of death penalty convictions.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=42 Killers Sentenced to Die : Tenacious North Carolina Prosecutor Builds His Life on Death )〕 The Guinness Book of World Records lists him as the "deadliest prosecutor in America", with 47 death row convictions to his name as of 1988. Britt earned his law degree from Stetson University College of Law in Florida in 1963.〔("Prosecutor Wins Death Sentences" ), New York ''Times'', December 25, 1985.〕 He lives in Lumberton, North Carolina.〔(Joe Britt ). Lawyer.com. Retrieved on September 05, 2014.〕 ==Prosecution and eventual release of Leon Brown and Henry Lee McCollum== Among the cases he prosecuted were those of Leon Brown and Henry Lee McCollum, illiterate African American teenagers with very low IQs; the younger boy was only 15 years old.〔(''North Carolina Men Are Released After Convictions Are Overturned'' ), 2014/09/04.〕 〔(''DNA Evidence Clears Two Men in 1983 Murder'' ), 2014/09/02.〕 They were convicted in North Carolina of the 1983 rape and murder of 11-year-old Sabrina Buie. Their convictions rested heavily on confessions coerced from and scripted for them over five hours of intense questioning by detectives, in the absence of attorneys. They soon recanted them.〔('' DNA evidence could free 2 men in 1983 case'' ), 2014/09/02.〕 Police failed to turn over to the brothers' defense and denied the existence of retained physical exculpatory evidence for 30 years. The convictions were overturned after DNA evidence implicated then-convicted sex offender Roscoe Artis, who was found guilty of a similar murder he perpetrated in the same neighborhood less than a month after the Buie killing. Both brothers were originally sentenced to death but were released after 30 years in prison. Even in the light of the scientific evidence, Britt refused to acknowledge the men's innocence.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Brothers Convicted in 1983 North Carolina Murder Are Freed After DNA Tests )〕〔Pilkington, Ed, ("DNA evidence could exonerate two in North Carolina death row case" ), The Guardian, September 2, 2014. Retrieved 4 September 2014.〕 Britt's multiple oversights in this case raise the question of whether he was negligent in his prosecutions of Brown and McCollum, or even whether he intentionally overlooked evidence that could have exonerated Brown and McCollum. A September 2014 story by ''The Charlotte Observer'' revealed that Britt's enthusiastic prosecution of Brown and McCollum overlooked glaring evidence that implicated Artis. First, Britt himself had convicted Artis for a similar crime just one month before McCollum and Brown went to trial. Second, Artis lived in next to a field where Buie's body was found. Third, Artis also faced a warrant for the 1980 rape and murder of a woman in Gastonia, North Carolina.〔 In 2015, with the two convicts released by the court due to the DNA analysis, Britt still opposed a pardon and compensation for wrongful imprisonment of the two. Governor Pat McCrory had also not acted on the pardon and compensation six months after the release.〔Blinder, Alan, ("Pardons Elude North Carolina Men Exonerated After Decades in Prison" ), New York ''Times'', March 16, 2015. Retrieved 2015-03-16.〕 On June 4, 2015, nine months after their release, Governor Pat McCrory issued a formal pardon to Brown and McCollum. McCrory said "it's the right thing to do". The brothers can now seek compensation for false imprisonment. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Joe Freeman Britt」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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