‘Overwhelmed’ Ronnie Long to go free after 44 years. NC to vacate rape conviction.
Ronnie Long, a North Carolina man who has spent 44 years in prison for a rape he says he didn’t commit, will finally be freed, his lawyer said Wednesday.
“The state said it will ask the district court to enter a writ vacating Ronnie’s conviction. In short, Ronnie Long is coming home!” lawyer Jamie Lau wrote on Twitter.
Long has steadfastly maintained his innocence over the years. Decades of appeals were supported by a growing body of proof that police, state officials and the prosecutor withheld key evidence from Long’s lawyers at his trial.
“While it will take some time for the courts to do what is needed to vacate the conviction, the state has set in motion a process that will lead to Ronnie’s freedom,” Lau wrote. “I spoke w/ Ronnie this morning. He is grateful, overwhelmed, and looks forward to reuniting with his loved ones.”
“We’re thrilled” by the decision of the N.C. Attorney General’s office, Lau later told The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday. “We’re glad the Attorney General’s office agrees with us that Ronnie Long should be freed as quickly as possible.”
Lau wanted Long released immediately, in part due to an outbreak of COVID-19 at Albemarle Correctional Institution that already has sickened more than 150 inmates and killed three.
In the mid-1970s, Long was a 20-year-old Black man living in Concord when he was accused of raping a white woman.
He was convicted in 1976 by an all-white jury that included members who had connections to the victim — the 54-year-old widow of a former textile executive at Cannon Mills, the town’s biggest employer.
Long was sentenced to 80 years in prison.
Laura Brewer, spokeswoman for N.C. Attorney General Josh Stein, responded to a request for comment from the Observer on Wednesday with a copy of the motion. “The interests of justice call for immediately remanding the case to the district court,” Stein and N.C. Special Deputy Attorney General Phillip Rubin say in the motion.
‘Repugnant in any context’
Long’s pending release comes as the country — and Long’s home state — find themselves engaged in a renewed debate over how Black men and women are treated by police and the courts.
Long benefited from this engagement, as groups of ministers and N.C. legislators called on Gov. Roy Cooper to intercede in the case.
On Monday, the federal Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new hearing that could have led to Long’s acquittal or a new trial. The court sent the case back to a federal court in North Carolina.
Nine judges voted in favor of the decision Monday; six opposed it.
Writing for the court’s majority, Judge Stephanie Thacker criticized North Carolina for continuing to defend Long’s conviction despite proof that investigators withheld evidence.
In a concurring opinion, Judge James Wynn, who grew up in eastern North Carolina, said the misconduct was all the more shocking because, at the time, Long’s rape conviction carried a possible death sentence.
“Such an action is repugnant in any context,” Wynn wrote. “But it takes on a particularly sinister meaning here, given our country’s historical treatment of Black men accused of raping white women.
“That evidence has now trickled out, revealing the truth that Mr. Long has declared for decades: he should not have been found guilty.”
Long’s attorneys have said that more than 40 fingerprints collected from the rape scene were never shared and did not match Long’s. Semen samples also were never disclosed to the defense. They later disappeared.
In his order, Wynn said it was possible that more withheld evidence would come forward in the case. But enough already had, he said. Besides, Long had waited too long.
‘’Forty-four years,” the judge wrote, “is an unconscionably long period to wait for justice. It is time.”
On Wednesday, the waiting stopped.
An earlier version of this story misattributed quotes taken from a concurring opinion by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals. They were written by Judge James Wynn of North Carolina.
This story was originally published August 26, 2020 at 12:31 PM.