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.
Dang. The US has the worst prison and justice system ever. No focus on rehabilitation, for only punishment.
Not punishment but laking you work for nothing. That is slavery.
Oh yeah, I head North Korean prisons are big on prisoner wellbeing and rehabilitation.
Hey bud? You’re comparing the US to a an extremely low-income totalitarian-dictatorship country with the worst human-rights record ever. They literally can’t feed their people or keep the lights on. Their per capita GDP is estimated at $654 vs $33,147 for South Korea (and $76,399 for the US).
And still we have the most people incarcerated worldwide (or 6th per capita). Not great…
Yeah? When talking about if it’s the worst in the world, I compare it to one of the worst in the world.
What do you want me to compare it to in that situation?