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.
Still seems low. Imagine someone who said, “just sign here. If you make it through the next 44 years without leaving this cell, you’ll win $25 million.” Would anyone take that deal? A settlement is supposed to make a person “whole.”
Nothing can give time back and make this right. That being said, 22 million on top of 3 million from another case, I feel is a pretty reasonable settlement. He can live his remaining years in luxury at least. Not sure real justice can be found for so many years of someone’s life wrongfully taken from them.
I am not even 44 yet… this guy has been in prison 4 more years than I have been alive. That’s just insane to even try to comprehend.
How many people spend 45 years in prison on a legitimate rape conviction?
Maybe if a defendant has been proven to commit multiple rapes on top of murder.
I imagine they’d specify that? There is a complete lack of any reference to priors, and in context, that implies there were (because they’d make a point to specify no priors in an article like this…), but just the life sentence on a rape charge, and dude wasn’t paroled, seems a bit much, ya know?
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THATS NOT ENOUGH
So, I get where you’re coming from here, but $25 million is still an enormous amount of money objectively. Obviously there isn’t really a way to convert 44 years of incarceration into an equivalent financial denomination, but if we think about earnings that could be had in that time, $25 million by far covers it.
If this guy were to have a job paying $100k a year for his whole life, he’d be making well in excess of the average, and still only have about $6 million total earnings by the time they retire. Let’s double it and assume he was making $200k a year for his entire working life, that’s still only half the amount he was awarded. So this amount paid could be said to cover a lifetime of high pay, plus an equivalent amount in damages, plus a little extra on top for good measure.
It’s proportionally correct. I bet lots of people would agree to a year in prison for half a million, but there’s simply no amount that would compensate for half your life in prison. At least this is enough for him to spend the rest of his life doing whatever he wants.
I would agree to it with the caveat that it wouldn’t be on my record. Otherwise, it would likely affect potential future earnings.
It’s true, this is quite a lot of money for him to retire with now. Nothing makes up for the lost time but all he can do now is make the best of this and try to enjoy his remaining life.
In this comparison it wouldn’t be on your record since this guy was innocent and exonerated so matching the situation you’d be clean too
Its the oportunity cost. All of the oportunities to have a normal life
Of course, hence why I said that it’s not possible to convert incarceration time into money. Removing agency is to remove possibility to proceed however one sees fit. Likely he would have been financially poorer off, but life isn’t a measure of worth by dollars. Only the most degenerate among us think that bigger numbers in various accounts equates to a good life.
What is?
$26M
I was actually hoping that they would answer.
they didn’t
He’ll be targeted by the police and killed… Leaving 24.5 millions behind…
No amount of money can buy back time.
I honestly don’t know how the state could make this up to him.
Perhaps no amount of money can adequately compensate for 44 years of misery humiliation and horror, I’d say more money is certainly better than less.
Dang. The US has the worst prison and justice system ever. No focus on rehabilitation, for only punishment.
Like having a 44 year career that feels like prison then you retire with $25 mil. Enough to do some wild things but your family and friends are long gone.
Not unlike a lot of people who give their time to a career in the same way.
I hope he live enough to make something good with those 25 millons…
Should be more.
Doesn’t seem like that high of a record.
