CHARLOTTE, N.C. — It was a record payout: The state of North Carolina, the city of Concord and the State Bureau of Investigation paid Ronnie Long $25 million after he spent 44 years in prison for a crime he never did.
Long was 21 years old in 1976 when he was sentenced to life in prison for the rape of then-54-year-old Sarah Bost that he didn’t commit. He spent 44 years behind bars until the courts finally overturned his conviction in 2020, citing the “troubling and striking pattern of deliberate police suppression of material evidence.”
In an exclusive interview with WCNC Charlotte, Long said there's still no justice because his case is about the people who knowingly helped convict him and those who withheld evidence that could have freed him sooner, including the former Cabarrus County district attorney who recently stepped down.
"How does it feel to win the biggest settlement in North Carolina history? I don't feel as though I've been truly compensated for the things that I lost," Long explained.
Long lost his mother, father and two sisters during the 44 years before he was freed.
"I ain't been compensated for nothing," Long said. "Bring my mother and father back. Bring me my 44 years back. Bring back my two sisters, [and] now I'm compensated."
Long's attorneys filed a suit against the city of Concord, the state and SBI shortly after his release. The case was settled, and Long was awarded $25 million, a record amount for North Carolina. Part of the settlement included an apology from the city of Concord, something also rare in these kinds of cases.
"If you have a chief of police, and he's tampering with the jury list, if you've got detectives that plant evidence, you commit perjury, you destroy evidence, and you knew with all the things you were doing intentionally, you were seeing me to death row," Long declared. "You were trying to kill me."
The city's apology included accepting responsibility for "significant errors in judgment and willful misconduct by previous city employees that led to Long's wrongful conviction and imprisonment."
Among the detectives named in the civil suit was Van Isenhour, who had a criminal record for theft and forgery by the 1980s. WCNC Charlotte reached out to attorneys for Isenhour and detective John Taylor, also named in the case. They didn't respond but told Long's attorneys both men were not in good health and couldn't even be deposed for the lawsuit.
"You didn’t put me in the penitentiary wrongfully; you put me in there intentionally," Long said. "There's a difference between wrongful and intentional."
The civil suit also points the finger at former Cabarrus County District Attorney Roxanne Vaneekhoven. Long's attorneys claim when they asked for evidence to clear him, Vaneekhoven told them she "personally searched every file room" and "no items of evidence, test results or reports ... were located." According to the suit, Vaneekhoven also refused to release a key file to Long's legal team.
Vaneekhoven didn't respond to WCNC Charlotte's attempts to contact her about the case.
Meanwhile, Long said he's concerned other innocent people are being held in jail like he was for over 40 years.
No one is investigating any of the accused officials in Long's case. His attorneys said they're not calling for an investigation because they believe Long was specifically targeted, not that this was a pattern of behavior.
"There were two injustices done here," Long said. "Not just to my family, but to the Bost family. You never took time to seek the real perpetrator."
Long said the $25 million settlement does nothing to fix what he believes is a broken system. He sued, in part, because after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper pardoned him, a North Carolina state commission only gave him $750,000, essentially paying him for only 15 of the 44 years he spent in prison. That's because the law caps the amount of money a wrongfully convicted inmate can get.
"They need to change that law," he said. "I wasn't the first, and I won't be the last."
Despite everything he's been through, Long admitted he's settling into a life of freedom.
"I got no complaints," Long said. "I can't complain. Any time I can get up and see the sunrise, I can't complain. Any time I can walk out my door and not have police bothering me or giving me a direct order, I can't complain."
Many people want to know how Long is spending the money he received. He did buy a fancy car and added a pool to his house, but Long lives in a modest home and has donated quite a bit of money to several charities, including the Duke Wrongful Convictions Clinic that worked to free him.
Ronnie Long appeal and prison release timeline
Nov. 1, 2009: Ronnie Long says he has evidence that proves his innocence
March 23, 2010: North Carolina Supreme Court agrees to take up Long's case
Aug. 18, 2014: Ronnie Long gets married in prison while fighting for his release
Feb. 22, 2020: Long's attorneys uncover that Concord police hid evidence and handpicked the jury that convicted him
March 18, 2020: Long's appeal is pushed back due to COVID-19 delays in the courts
May 7, 2020: Long's appeal is finally heard by North Carolina judges
July 24, 2020: Long's mother dies while he awaits his release from prison
Aug. 26, 2020: Ronnie Long's 1976 conviction is vacated, effective immediately
Aug. 27, 2020: Ronnie Long is released from prison after 44 years
Aug. 31, 2020: Cabarrus County says it won't retry Long's case, ending the decades-long saga
Sept. 9, 2020: Long admits he's facing new struggles after spending 44 years in prison
Dec. 20, 2020: Long is pardoned by Gov. Roy Cooper
April 6, 2021: Long says $750,000 issued by state isn't enough, fights to change law
May 3, 2021: Long sues city of Concord, detectives accused of hiding evidence
Jan. 9, 2021: Ronnie Long receives record $25 million settlement for wrongful imprisonment
Contact Michelle Boudin at mboudin@wcnc.com and follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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