Ronnie Long Awaits Pardon
On August 27, 2020, the state of North Carolina finally released Ronnie Long after serving 44 years in prison for a crime he did not commit.
In 1976 Ronnie Long was convicted by an all-white jury of raping a white woman, and after decades of his case going back and forth in the courts, his sentence was finally vacated and all charges dropped.
Despite the second highest court in the United States ruling that he is innocent, he still needs NC Governor Roy Cooper to pardon him in order to receive other pardon clearances from the State of NC for his 44 years of wrongful incarceration.
Cooper, a Democrat just reelected to a second term, has refused to pardon the 64-year-old, and without that pardon, Long is still considered guilty by the state and remains ineligible for compensation for his time behind bars. Long has pleaded with Governor Cooper to grant his pardon and that of three other African American men who were released after their wrongful convictions.
“My constitutional rights were violated. My fifth and fourteenth amendment rights were violated, so I ask Governor Cooper, who is going to be held accountable for my constitutional violations?”
Long continues, “I am disappointed in the fact that you got a system here in the state of North Carolina—you got four exonerates in one state! That within itself speaks volumes,” explained Long. “You got four Black men in one statement that have been exonerated. I was exonerated by the second highest court in the United States.”
Equally heartbreaking, Long said that he was not able to reunite with his mother, Elizabeth Long, who died on July 11th of this year at 89, about a month before he was finally released. It had been her prayer to see her son as a free man again before she passed away.
Long said through tears, “My mom died a month before I got out… That hurt me. That hurt me real bad. I lost my two sisters. I lost my dad. I lost my mother and ain’t nobody for the state said, ‘We apologize. We made a mistake.’ I can’t even get an apology.”
Cooper made headlines for tweeting “Black Lives do Matter” on May 31 of this year, to commute Long’s sentence, but has yet to grant Ronnie Long a Pardon as he continues the fight to clear his name and move on with the remainder of his life.
How you can help Ronnie Long
To encourage Governor Cooper to take action for long-delayed justice, petition the governor’s office for a pardon for Long and the other three exonerated men. Contact Governor Roy Cooper at (919) 814-2000; by email at [email protected]; or by letter mailed to North Carolina Office of the Governor, 20301 Mail Service Center, Raleigh, NC 27699-0301.
