The Latest:
CONCORD, N.C. – The City of Concord announced it has reached a $22 million settlement with Ronnie Long, following his wrongful conviction in 1976. In the settlement, the City of Concord acknowledges and accepts responsibility for the significant errors in judgment and willful misconduct by previous city employees that led to Long’s wrongful conviction and imprisonment.
After reaching this agreement with Long and his attorneys, the Concord City Council made the following statement:
“We are deeply remorseful for the past wrongs that caused tremendous harm to Mr. Long, his family, friends, and our community. Mr. Long suffered the extraordinary loss of his freedom and a substantial portion of his life because of this conviction. He wrongly served 44 years, 3 months and 17 days in prison for a crime he did not commit. 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. We are hopeful this can begin the healing process for Mr. Long and our community, and that together we can move forward while learning valuable lessons and ensuring nothing like this ever happens again.”
Original Story:
CONCORD, N.C. — The exonerated Concord man who served 44 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit is suing the City of Concord, detectives who worked his original case, and the city’s current and former police chiefs, according to an 88-page lawsuit.
The lawsuit alleges the actions of the defendants in the suit wrongfully convicted Ronnie Long and kept him in prison even though evidence showed that he was innocent.
The suit states that officials on the case decided to target Long for the crime even though he did not match the description given by the victim.
According to the suit, the victim described her attacker as “light-skinned” and as a “yellow black man.” Long is a dark-skinned Black man. The victim also initially made no mention of her attacker having facial hair. Long wore a mustache and scruffy beard at that time.
This is one example of screwed information during the Ronnie Long case, according to the filing.
The suit alleges the Concord Police Department “engaged in a malicious conspiracy to conceal evidence from prosecutors and from Long’s defense team. As a result, the jury never learned that forensic evidence from the crime-scene pointed to Long’s innocence.”
In addition, Ronnie Long was tried in front of an all-white jury in Concord ‘in a tense and extremely racially polarized atmosphere’ which led to him being convicted rape, a crime he insisted he didn’t commit.
After decades, his attorneys discovered the Concord Police Department hid evidence in the case that ruled him out as a suspect.
The courts ruled in August 2020 that Ronnie Long had been wrongfully convicted and he was freed 44 years after he was sent to prison. In December, North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper pardoned Long and he received $750,000 last month as compensation.
The compensation amount is based on a North Carolina state statute outlining the state will pay someone who was wrongfully convicted $50,000 a year for their time in prison. The amount is capped at $750,000. The capped amount of compensation means Long will not receive an adequate amount for more than two-thirds of the time he was behind bars.
