Ronnie Long was convicted by an all-white jury in North Carolina on Oct. 1, 1976, after he was accused of raping a white woman in Concord.

Ronnie Long was convicted by an all-white jury in North Carolina on Oct. 1, 1976, after he was accused of raping a white woman in Concord.

A Black North Carolina man who spent 44 years in prison after he was wrongfully convicted of raping a prominent white woman has been awarded a historic $25 million settlement more than three years after he was exonerated.

Ronnie Long, 68, settled his civil lawsuit with the city of Concord, about 25 miles northeast of Charlotte, for $22 million, the city said in a news release Tuesday. The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation had previously settled for $3 million, according to Duke Law School’s Wrongful Convictions Clinic.

The clinic, which represented Long, said the settlement is the second largest wrongful conviction settlement recorded.

“It’s, obviously, a celebratory day today knowing that Ronnie’s going to have his means met for the rest of his life with this settlement. It’s been a long road to get to this point so that’s a great outcome,” clinical professor Jamie Lau, Long’s criminal attorney, said in a phone interview Tuesday.

  • AquaTofana@lemmy.world
    52·
    6 months ago

    Bruh. Quoted from the article:

    "They said that the prosecution’s main piece of evidence was the victim’s identification of Long weeks after the attack and that it was “the product of a suggestive identification procedure arranged by the police to target Long.”

    There were also numerous pieces of evidence from the scene, including suspect hair and 43 fingerprints, that could have helped exonerate him, according to his attorneys. The material, which they said did not belong to Long, was tested by investigators but not disclosed. The attorneys also accused Concord police officers of giving false testimony about the evidence at Long’s trial."

    It sounds like she was led by the police, and all evidence pointing to the contrary was tossed out.

    • fidodo@lemmy.world
      62·
      6 months ago

      Seriously. If you’re raped you don’t think “finding my real rapist would be great, but what I would rather do is get some random guy sent to prison because I don’t like black people”

      • AquaTofana@lemmy.world
        111·
        6 months ago

        Bruh, it sounds like she was coerced and lead. She likely believed she that she had selected the correct person.

        Plus, how is this not on the courts and jurors? They had actual evidence matching someone else that would have exonerated him, they purposefully ensured that he was judged by an all white jury, and they coerced/lead the victim.

        Come on now guys, we all fucking know that police play head games with people to get BS confessions. This isn’t hard. They wanted a conviction, and they did whatever they could to get one, no matter whether it was the correct perpetrator or not.