NC Man Falsely Imprisoned 44 Years Wins $25 Million from Concord – Largest in History

By
Charlotte Stories
-
718

The City of Concord has just agreed to the largest false conviction settlements in North Carolina’s history after wrongfully imprisoning Ronny Long for 44 years.

In 1976, Long was sentenced to life in prison for false allegations of rape. His conviction was overturned in 2020 after overwhelming evidence of police misconduct was presented.

After being released on August 27th, 2020, Long was officially pardoned by Gov. Cooper and his legal team then filed a civil lawsuit against Concord and the State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).

This week a settlement of $22 million payment from Concord and $3 million from the SBI was announced, making it the largest of its kind in North Carolina and one of the largest in American history.

After the settlement was reached, the City of Concord released the following statement:

“We are deeply remorseful for the past wrongs that caused tremendous harm to Mr. Long, his family, friends, and our community. Mr. Long suffered the extraordinary loss of his freedom and a substantial portion of his life because of this conviction. He wrongly served 44 years, 3 months and 17 days in prison for a crime he did not commit. While there are no measures to fully restore to Mr. Long and his family all that was taken from them, through this agreement we are doing everything in our power to right the past wrongs and take responsibility. We are hopeful this can begin the healing process for Mr. Long and our community, and that together we can move forward while learning valuable lessons and ensuring nothing like this ever happens again.”

Comments

comments