“To be able to walk out of them gates without being supervised, it was breathtaking,” Ronnie Long said of leaving prison, according to CBS News. He was released on Aug. 27, 2020, after more than 44 years, per Duke University School of Law.
Long was convicted on Oct. 1, 1976, of burglary and the rape of a prominent white woman in Concord, N.C., Duke reported. He was 21 and received two life sentences, according to CBS News.
The jury was all white. Long’s attorneys said the police chief and the county sheriff removed nearly all Black potential jurors from the pool before summonses were issued, per Duke.
His lawyers also said more than 40 fingerprints from the scene were never shared with the defense and did not match Long. Semen samples were never disclosed and later disappeared, CBS News reported.
Long became a client of Duke’s Wrongful Convictions Clinic in 2015. In August 2020, a federal appeals court ordered a new hearing and found he was the victim of “extreme and continuous police misconduct,” per CBS News. His conviction was vacated almost immediately.
Gov. Roy Cooper later pardoned him with a pardon of innocence, CBS News reported. A state commission awarded him $750,000, the state’s top compensation for wrongful incarceration.
Long sued in federal court in Raleigh in 2021, alleging police misconduct and civil rights violations by Concord. In January 2024, the case ended in a $25 million settlement, per CBS News.
The City of Concord agreed to pay $22 million, and the State Bureau of Investigation paid $3 million, according to CBS News. Duke called it the second-largest wrongful conviction settlement ever recorded.
Concord accepted responsibility for “significant errors in judgment and willful misconduct by previous [C]ity employees,” Duke reported. “We are deeply remorseful for the past wrongs that caused tremendous harm to Mr. Long,” the city said.
“No amount of money will ever compensate Ronnie Long for the 44 years he spent incarcerated,” said Jamie Lau, the clinic professor who led his appeal. Long said, “I know my mother and father died with a broken heart.”
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