NC pays man wrongly imprisoned for 44 years $750,000
A man who served nearly 44 years in prison for a crime he says he didn't commit has received compensation from the state of North Carolina.
Ronnie Long received $750,000, which is the maximum amount under state law for victims of wrongful incarceration.
"The amount is wholly inadequate to compensate him after taking away more than 44 years of his liberty," Long's attorney, Duke University law professor Jamie Lau, said in a statement. "He was in a cage when both his parents died, when his son had birthdays and graduations. He lost everything for those 44 years, and certainly he deserves more than he has received."
Long was convicted of raping the widow of a Cannon Mills executive in 1976 by an all-white jury in Concord. Potentially exculpatory evidence was either intentionally withheld from his defense team or disappeared. And there was a tampered pool of potential jurors.
A federal court overturned Long’s conviction. He was released from prison in September – six weeks after his mother's death – and was later pardoned by Gov. Roy Cooper.
“Fair? What’s fair?,” Long told The Charlotte Observer. “Ask yourself that question when these people took away your 20s, your 30s, your 40s, your 50s and they started in on your 60s.”
Lau said Long "will explore whatever remedies are available for holding those responsible for his wrongful incarceration accountable." He also said state lawmakers need to revisit the compensation cap for wrongfully convicted individuals, noting that Long is the second person exonerated after spending more than 40 years in prison.
