RALEIGH, N.C. — Two half brothers will receive more than $1 million from the State of North Carolina after they were wrongfully imprisoned for three decades in the killing of an 11-year-old girl. But for one of them, the windfall is not the issue.

“It ain’t about money,” said Henry Lee McCollum, 51, who, along with his 47-year-old half 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.”

The pardons qualify each man for $50,000 from the state for every year they were imprisoned, with a limit of $750,000 each. The compensation still needs to be approved by a state agency, but that is considered a formality. It is not clear exactly when they could get the money.

Mr. McCrory’s office announced on Friday that he had signed the pardons. Both men were released from prison in September after they were exonerated by DNA evidence.