For Ronnie Long, $750K Is Not Enough After Wrongful Imprisonment

CONCORD, NC — Ronnie Long became a free man last year after spending almost 44 years in a North Carolina prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit; now he’s looking to be made whole again.

After his release, the state of North Carolina paid him $750,000 in restitution earlier this month, but he told The Charlotte Observer that wasn’t nearly enough.

“Ain’t no way in hell that you put me in the penitentiary and then tell me what I’m worth,” Long said.

Long, who is Black, was 20 years old when an all-white jury convicted him of raping a white woman in 1976 and sentenced him to life in prison. Now 65, the Concord native has maintained his innocence, and questions have arose on how he was identified and the way the trial was conducted.

The Innocence Project reports Long was identified in a "highly unorthodox" manner using methods that frequently contributed to misidentifying suspects.

Local law enforcement officers at the time took the victim to a courthouse more than two weeks after she had been attacked and told her the man who raped her might be in the building, according to the legal nonprofit. Typically, police would have a victim identify someone by presenting them with a photo array of possible suspects.

“She did not identify Long, who had been in the courtroom the entire time, until the judge called him forward on an unrelated minor charge,” the Innocence Project reports.

“This procedure lacked an important safeguard for all identifications, known innocent fillers which ensure that the identification is based on true recognition of the perpetrator rather than mere selection of the person who looks the most like him.”

In addition to the questionable way he was identified, The Charlotte Observer reports, evidence during Long's trial was purposefully hidden from his defense team and he was convicted by a tampered jury.

Long's conviction was overturned last year because of the questionable investigation, and he was given a pardon by Gov. Roy Cooper in December, qualifying him to receive restitution for wrongful imprisonment.

However, CNN reports that North Carolina law only allows a person to be paid $50,000 a year in restitution for wrongful imprisonment and caps the amount at $750,000. That means Long was only paid for the first 15 years of his four decades in prison.

Jamie Lau, Long's attorney, told CNN the amount was “wholly inadequate” in paying back his client for the pain he endured while imprisoned.

“He was in a cage when both his parents died; when his son had birthdays and graduations," Lau said. "He lost everything for those 44 years, and certainly he deserves more than he has received.”

Lau told the network two other men have been exonerated in North Carolina after spending decades behind bars and that the law needs to be re-examined to properly compensate people like them and Long.

Outside his fight for fair compensation, Long wants to live the life he has missed out on in the last four decades. He's looking to buy a home with his wife, AshLeigh Long, and bought his dream car a black Cadillac, according to The Charlotte Observer.

Long also plans to buy his parents’ graves a new set of headstones.