A Black man has received a historic $25m settlement after he spent 44 years of his life wrongly imprisoned in North Carolina for the rape of a white woman.
Ronnie Wallace Long, now 68, was living in Concord when he was found guilty of rape and burglary by an all-white jury in 1976. At age 21, Mr Long received two life sentences, with his attorneys claiming that the jury was handpicked by local law enforcement leaders.
But it was not until August 2020 that a federal appeals court ordered a new hearing for Mr Long in his effort to obtain relief. Shortly after, his conviction was vacated.
That same year, Mr Long was released from prison and received a full pardon of innocence by Gov Roy Cooper. Mr Long then sued the state of North Carolina and the city of Concord in 2021.
The $25m award, of which the local government will pay $22m, also came with a written apology from the city of Concord for its role in Mr Long’s imprisonment
“We are deeply remorseful for the past wrongs that caused tremendous harm to Mr Long, his family, friends, and our community,” the city’s statement read. “While there are no measures to fully restore to Mr. Long and his family all that was taken from them, through this agreement we are doing everything in our power to right the past wrongs and take responsibility.”
Ronnie Long stands in a hallway at the Albemarle Correctional Institution in Albemarle, North Carolina in 2007
Mr Long was helped for years in his criminal case appeal by a wrongful convictions clinic at Duke University’s law school.
His attorneys had said that more than 40 fingerprints collected from the scene were never shared and did not match Mr Long’s.
Semen samples also were never disclosed to the defence and later disappeared.
A state commission initially awarded Mr Long $750,000 — by law the state’s top compensation for victims of wrongful incarceration.
But he then sued in federal court in Raleigh, accusing Concord police officers of “extraordinary misconduct” that led to his wrongful conviction and imprisonment in violation of his civil rights.
The State Bureau of Investigation also admitted that “as a result of the SBI’s role in hiding evidence from Mr Long and his legal team that proved his innocence,” a statement from his attorneys in the lawsuit said.
While Mr Long’s attorneys described the monetary payments as one of the largest wrongful conviction settlements nationwide, they said the city’s statement was extremely important to their client.
“This result speaks to the magnitude of injustice that occurred in Mr Long’s case,” said Chris Olson, one of his lawyers in the lawsuit, adding the “apology goes a long way in helping Mr Long heal.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
