North Carolina just paid Ronnie Long $750,000. ‘Hell no, I ain’t satisfied,’ he says.
The $750,000 wire transfer from the state of North Carolina appeared in Ronnie Long’s bank account on Friday, more money than Long had ever seen, more money than the Concord native had ever dreamed of.
And, Long said Wednesday, not nearly enough.
“Ain’t no way in hell that you put me in the penitentiary and then tell me what I’m worth,” an angry Long shouted through the phone during a 15-minute interview with the Observer from Durham.
“These people were trying me for my life, man. Do you understand that? They were trying me for my life, and then they took evidence and destroyed it.”
Long served almost 44 years for a crime he says he never committed. He was convicted in 1976 by an all-white jury in Concord of raping the widow of a Cannon Mills executive after a trial in which potentially exculpatory evidence was either intentionally withheld from his defense team or disappeared altogether.
The 12 people who found him guilty came from a tampered pool of potential jurors. At the time of his arrest, Long faced the death penalty. He was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
Citing the corrupted investigation and trial, a federal court overturned Long’s conviction last year. He was released from prison in September and pardoned by Gov. Roy Cooper a week before Christmas.
The pardon qualified Long to receive the $750,000, by law the state’s top compensation for victims of wrongful incarceration.
Long’s attorney, Duke University law professor Jamie Lau, said the capped amount is inadequate for those such as Long who were imprisoned for decades.
For his part, Long made it clear in his Observer interview that he still believes he is carrying North Carolina’s IOU, that the state’s debt to him has not been fully met.
“Fair? What’s fair?,” Long said, his voice rising. “Ask yourself that question when these people took away your 20s, your 30s, your 40s, your 50s and they started in on your 60s.”
“Print this in the paper,” Long says before beginning a story of how his mother and father, in their last moments of life, both asked, “Is Ronnie home yet?” Six weeks after his mother’s death, Long walked free.
“You asked me what’s fair? I got a dead mother and father in the ground,” he said. “You tell me what’s fair.”
Long’s time served of 43 years, 10 months and 27 days is the third longest in U.S. history for an exonerated defendant. He was 20 when he was convicted. He’s 65 now. Long would have been 100 if he had served out his sentence.
His wife, former UNC Charlotte student AshLeigh Long, says the state money offers Long some financial security. But she also called it “a slap in the face” in that it reimburses Long a little more than $17,000 for ever year he lost in prison.
The couple, she says, has been counseled by well-wishers not to express anger and “make sure you can forgive.”
“Get out,” AshLeigh Long said. “His life was stolen from him. His parents are dead. Who knows what we would have done if he had those 44 years back.”
Long has already spent some of the state’s money. He bought a new black-on-black Cadillac. AshLeigh said she and Ronnie, now renting a home in Durham, hoped on Wednesday to bid on a house in nearby Wake County. It would be his first. Long said he also plans to buy new headstones for his parents’ graves in Concord.
Asked if he and AshLeigh, 30 years his junior, had any plans to start a family, Long said he had other hurdles to cross first. “I’m 65. I don’t have that much time left,” he said.
The couple declined to say whether they plan further legal action or who the potential targets might be.
In a statement to the Observer, however, Lau left little doubt that Long’s days in court have not ended.
His client, according to Lau, will explore “whatever remedies are available for holding those responsible for his wrongful incarceration accountable, and to ensure that he is financially secure in the future.
“Unlike you and me, he lost his working years ... and has no savings. He entered prison healthy and left broken.”
Long puts it this way: “Everything that’s happened here ain’t being overlooked.”
“Hell no, I ain’t satisfied,” he added. “You wouldn’t be either, if you were in my position. You wouldn’t be either.”
This story was originally published April 7, 2021 at 4:38 PM with the headline "North Carolina just paid Ronnie Long $750,000. ‘Hell no, I ain’t satisfied,’ he says.."
