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August 28, 2020

Ronnie Long, Wrongly Convicted by All-White Jury, Freed After 44 Years in Prison 
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In North Carolina, Ronnie Long, an African American who spent 44 years
behind bars for a crime he did not commit, walked out of the Albemarle
Correctional Institute Thursday a free man. In 1976, Long was convicted
of rape by an all-white jury and sentenced to 80 years in prison. In
2015, his lawyers learned that investigators had withheld exculpatory
evidence proving his innocence, while witnesses for the state committed
perjury at his trial. It would take several more years and a ruling by
the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for Long to win his freedom.


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