Pardon Granted To Ronnie Long By NC Gov. Roy Cooper
The Latest (12/17/20):
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper granted a pardon of innocence for Ronnie Long, a Concord man who spent 44 years behind bars for a rape conviction he said he didn’t commit.
The announcement was made Thursday afternoon listing Long along with four other men convicted of crimes they did not commit who was issued a pardon. The others were Teddy Lamont Isbell, Sr., Damian Miguel Mills, Kenneth Manzi Kagonyera and Larry Jerome Williams, Jr.
“We must continue to work to reform our justice system and acknowledge when people have been wrongly convicted. I have carefully reviewed the facts in each of these cases and, while I cannot give these men back the time they served, I am granting them Pardons of Innocence in the hope that they might be better able to move forward in their lives,” said Governor Cooper.
The pardon makes Long eligible to file a claim under a North Carolina law that allows compensation to persons wrongly convicted of felonies.
The Latest (8/27/20):
Ronnie Long was released from prison August 27th at 5 p.m. after spending 44 years behind bars for a rape conviction he said he didn’t commit.
The U.S. District Court says they are dropping Long’s first-degree rape and burglary convictions. Read below for more details.
Original Story (August 26, 2020)
CONCORD, N.C. — The U.S. Court of Appeals will free Ronnie Long after spending 44 years in prison for a rape he says he did not commit.
After a new hearing on August 26th, North Carolina has asked a judge to get rid of Long’s conviction stating there was not enough evidence.
Jamie Lau, Long’s Attorney, shared the news on Twitter saying, “The State of N.C. filed a motion with the Fourth Circuit this morning asking that it immediately issue the mandate in Ronnie Long’s case. The state said it will ask the district court to enter a writ vacating Ronnie’s conviction. In short, Ronnie Long is coming home!“
Lau says it will take some time for Long to get out of the conviction, but that North Carolina has set up his path to being released from prison.
Long was a 20-year-old Black man from Concord when he was convicted of raping a white woman by an all-white jury, some of whom had connections with the victim, and was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
There were more than 40 fingerprints collected from the rape scene that did not much Long’s and were never shared, Long’s attorneys learned in 2015.
Long’s attorneys filed a petition to free him in order to protect his health, since Albemarle Correctional Institute has one of the worst coronavirus numbers in the state, according to a news release.
