Ronnie Long (left) walks out of prison in August 2020.
North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper has granted a pardon to Ronnie Long, reaffirming Long s innocence and making him eligible for up to $750,000 in restitution for the decades he spent in prison for a rape he did not commit.
The pardon was issued Thursday in the first series of pardons to come from the governor s office since Cooper took office in 2017.
His wife recorded the moment Ronnie long found out he would be pardoned. @wcncpic.twitter.com/Dv2RULydLC MichelleBoudin (@MichelleBoudin) December 17, 2020 Today is a day for celebration. We re elated for Ronnie, said Long s attorney, Jamie Lau. When I broke the news to him that he was receiving a pardon today, he was elated and ran through the parking lot from the video that I received from his wife.
Gov. Cooper issues pardons of innocence to 5 inmates
By BRYAN ANDERSONDecember 17, 2020 GMT
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper announced Thursday the pardons of five men convicted of crimes he believes they did not commit.
Among the prisoners is Ronnie Long, who spent 44 years in prison for a rape he says he did not commit. Long was freed in August. Cooper’s actions allow him and four other ex-convicts to apply for compensation of $50,000 a year up to $750,000 for their wrongful felony convictions.
“We must continue to work to reform our justice system and acknowledge when people have been wrongly convicted,” Cooper said in a statement. “I have carefully reviewed the facts in each of these cases and, while I cannot give these men back the time they served, I am granting them Pardons of Innocence in the hope that they might be better able to move forward in their lives.”