One would understand if Ronnie Long had turned bitter and angry. After all, he had spent 44 years, 3 months, and 17 days in prison as an innocent man, wrongly taken from his family when he was just 20 years old. But Ronnie Long is a special individual. He survived a four-decade wrongful incarceration that would have broken a lesser man. Since his release from prison on August 27, 2020, Mr. Long has worked to raise awareness of criminal and social justice issues. One of Ronnie Long’s most recent efforts has gained traction in the North Carolina Legislature.
After Mr. Long’s convictions were vacated, he was granted a Pardon of Innocence in December 2020. That triggered his entitlement to statutory compensation of $50,000 per year of wrongful incarceration. However, under then-prevailing and current law, the statutory compensation is capped at $750,000. That means Ronnie Long received $50,000 per year for the first 15 years of his wrongful incarceration but nothing for the additional 29 years he spent behind prison walls. Because of the arbitrary cap of $750,000, Ronnie Long – who endured a 44-year wrongful incarceration – would receive the exact same amount as someone who was wrongfully incarcerated for 15 years, roughly a third of the time that Mr. Long lost. That outcome seemed wrong, so Ronnie Long took on the effort to change North Carolina law. He rightly contends that an individual subjected to a wrongful incarceration should receive compensation for every bit of time they spent in prison – without a cap on that amount.
Mr. Long’s efforts to spearhead a change in North Carolina law to eliminate the cap on statutory awards for wrongful incarcerations has garnered national attention. CNN was one of many news outlets to report on the issue and the push initiated by Mr. Long. The effort caught the attention of North Carolina legislators and resulted in Senate Bill 704, named “The Ronnie Long No Cap Act,” which, if passed, would remove the limit on how much an exoneree could receive in statutory compensation. The text of the Act can be accessed here.
Ronnie Long should be applauded for his enduring sense of what is right, and his efforts improve both public awareness of and the plight of the wrongfully incarcerated. He is a special individual.
