In a landmark settlement, Ronnie Long, a North Carolina man who endured a wrongful 44-year imprisonment for a crime he did not commit, has been awarded a historic $25 million (approximately N25 billion) in a combined settlement from a civil lawsuit in the U.S.
The 68-year-old Mr. Long secured $22 million from the city and an additional $3 million from the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, as confirmed by one of his attorneys, Jamie T. Lau.
The Concord City Council issued a written public apology to Mr. Long on Tuesday, expressing deep remorse for the past injustices that caused immense harm to him, his family, friends, and the community. Mr. Long suffered an extraordinary loss of freedom, spending 44 years, 3 months, and 17 days in prison for a crime he did not commit.
The apology statement reads, “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.”
Mr. Long, a 21-year-old cement mason with a 2-year-old son at the time of his conviction on October 1, 1976, was wrongly accused of breaking into a home in Concord and raping a 54-year-old woman earlier that year. Despite the absence of physical evidence linking him to the crime, he received two concurrent life sentences.
His legal team argued that the Concord police had been under pressure to close the case, partly due to the victim’s late husband’s association with a local textile company, Cannon Mills, which had offered a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
This groundbreaking settlement sheds light on the challenges faced by innocent individuals within the criminal justice system and serves as a poignant reminder of the enduring impact of wrongful convictions.
Source: Track News
