WRONGFULLY CONVICTED
MAN CHALLENGES STEIN
ON ACTIONS DURING
INCARCERATION
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
A wrongfully convicted man has openly challenged state Attorney General Josh Stein for saying on a recent radio program that he doesn’t regret how his office handled the case.
Ronnie Long, 68, served 44 years of an 80-year prison sentence after being wrongfully convicted of raping a 54-year-old white woman in 1976. He maintained his innocence throughout.
Long was just 20 years-old and living in Concord when he was arrested and charged with the crime, and then convicted by an all-white jury.
During the course of his incarceration, Long’s attorneys filed numerous appeals of his conviction. During those years, it was determined that Long’s jury had been tampered with, and investigators with the Concord Police Dept. lied on the witness stand. In addition, it was determined that prosecutors withheld exculpatory evidence from Long’s defense.
Meanwhile, while Long was in prison, his parents had died. He was not allowed to attend their funerals.
Still, in March 2020, neither Atty. Gen. Stein’s office nor a panel of the U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals were moved to undo the injustice done to Long.
"We're paying taxes in North Carolina to keep an innocent man in prison while a guilty man has been free to harm more people for 44 years," Ashleigh Long, Ronnie’s wife, said then. "He was a tri-athlete, could've gone pro for baseball. All these opportunities were taken for him and for what? Because he's a black man in North Carolina? People don't want to hear it but it's the truth."
The Duke North Carolina Innocence Commission had taken up Long’s case in 2015, and discovered much of the new evidence pointing to Long’s innocence.
Those attorneys, using the new evidence, appealed to the full federal appellate court.
Atty. Gen Stein’s office argued, however, for the court to uphold Long’s conviction. "There was a jury that convicted him, his conviction has been upheld a number of times," Stein told ABC11 in Durham. "The panel that just heard the case upheld the conviction. The case right now is before the full 4th circuit and we'll see what they do."
Stein then added, "That is exactly what our job is - to uphold convictions, and all the time, defendants will say there was a problem with the trial. And that's ultimately what the courts determine. Was there a problem and should there be a new trial? That is exactly what is before the 4th circuit."
But a day later, Stein backtracked, posting a tweet saying, “I misspoke. My job is to seek justice. That’s what we try to do every day at the department of justice."
Finally, the full U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a lower court to reopen Long’s case. By this time, the Cabarrus County District Attorney’s Office had determined that it would not seek a new trial.
In 2020, Gov. Roy Cooper finally granted Ronnie Long a pardon of innocence.
After Long’s conviction was vacated and he was released from prison on August 27, 2020, he was told he would receive $750,000 in compensation paid out at $50,000 a year, the maximum amount possible under North Carolina law.
Long fought the law, charging that it was grossly unfair given how he was treated by the state.
In January 2024, Long received a $22 million settlement from the city of Concord, and a $3 million settlement from the State Bureau of Investigation. combined the second largest wrongful conviction settlement ever recorded.
Last week, Long wrote an op-ed published in the Raleigh News and Observer titled, “I was wrongfully convicted. AG Josh Stein is refusing to do the right thing.”
“Stein recently appeared on a national radio show and was asked about his office’s conduct in my case. While I was wrongfully imprisoned, the attorney general’s office went to great lengths to keep me there despite the lies and deceit by law enforcement officers and prosecutors that led to my conviction. As described by Judge James Wynn of the U.S. Court of Appeals, in his separate opinion in my case, “...the State has maintained (my) guilt — even while concealing evidence showing otherwise.”
Long’s op-ed continued, “When that evidence was finally disclosed, the attorney general’s office undertook a misinformation campaign to excuse the state’s conduct rather than acknowledge it. This campaign included arguments that the officers did not lie, but were simply mistaken, that the concealed evidence was irrelevant to my conviction, and that I knew of the evidence all along. The A.G.’s Office advanced these arguments because it could, not because there was any support for them.”
“Despite all this, when radio host Clay Cane asked Stein whether he had any regrets about how his office handled my case, he firmly replied, “I don’t, I don’t.” In explaining his office’s actions, Stein said that there are cases “where people look at the facts and come to different conclusions.” That is true, but it should be deeply disturbing to the citizens of North Carolina that, in this of all cases, Stein doubled down on the actions of his office that unnecessarily caused me, an innocent man, to languish in prison. Worse, the actual perpetrator of the sexual assault I was convicted of was never brought to justice. Does Stein regret that his office aggressively defended my wrongful conviction while the true assailant remained free? Does he regret that the victim died believing a lie told to her by the corrupt police officers that his office defended?”
This newspaper put the two questions Long asked to the AG Stein’s office on Monday, giving him until 5 p.m. Friday to answer.
This newspaper plans a followup story next week, based on AG Stein’s office’s answers or non-answers.
Mr. Stein is the Democratic candidate for governor in November. It is only fair to ask questions of his record as state attorney general, and give him or his office the proper opportunity to respond to Ronnie Long’s questions.
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BLACK MEN AND PROSTATE
CANCER: OJ’S DEATH REMINDS
US TO SEEK HELP EARLY
By Cash Michaels
Contributing writer
Last week, the world was taken aback by news that former football great O.J. Simpson had died of prostate cancer at age 76.
In January, eyeopening news that Dexter Scott King, one of late civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s children, also died of prostate cancer at age 62.
And in March, acclaimed Academy Award winning actor Louis Gossett, Jr., age 87, also died. While cause of death wasn’t officially given, Gossett himself revealed that he was battling prostate cancer many years ago at age 73.
The litany of famous Black men who have been diagnosed with prostate cancer is noteworthy - retired Gen Colin Powell, actor Sidney Poitier, singer/activist Harry Belafonte, “Today Show” weatherman Al Roker and U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are among the many.
Gen. Powell, Poitier and Belafonte eventually died due to other causes, but they all encountered the deadly disease in the later years of their lives.
Shining the light on these great figures of Black history illustrates the point that Black men are more than 1.6 times more likely to develop prostate cancer, and aggressive forms of prostate cancer, than any other racial group of males, according to the Prostate Cancer Foundation.
Black men are twice as likely to die from prostate cancer too.
What causes prostate cancer? Researchers don’t know, and they don’t know why Black men are more prone to contract it than others. But what they do know is early detection key to treating it effectively, and ultimately curing it.
However, once prostate cancer reaches stage four, there is no known cure. Life is prolonged only through treatment.
What is prostate cancer, and why don’t women contract it?
The prostate is a small gland in the male reproductive system that sits below the bladder. It helps to produce hormones and semen, in addition to regulating urine flow.
The reason why early detection of prostate cancer is so important, doctors say, is because there are no symptoms for many years. Thus, having regular screenings by a health provider to detect it is important.
When prostate cancer does reach critical levels, patients may experience unintentional weight loss; a weak urine stream; pain in the back, hips and thighs; painful ejaculation or a decrease on the amount of ejaculate; blood in the semen or urine.
According to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, all males, particularly Black males, under the age of 45, should have a PSA ( prostate-specific antigen) screening from their doctor annually, as well as regular prostate exams.
If prostate cancer runs in your family history, tell your doctor.
Treatments for prostate cancer include (depending on what stage it is detected) having the prostate surgically removed; having chemotherapy or radiation to kill the cancer cells; hormone therapy to suppress testosterone to lower the growth of prostate cancer.
Of special note is if the prostate cancer cells remain in the prostate, a patient’s survival rate is also 100% with treatment.
But if prostate cancer cells have spread throughout the body, particularly the bones, survival rate is generally 30%.
At the most, a patient can hope to survive maybe five-years at the stage, which is rare.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who was severely criticized for not making his prostate cancer treatments public recently when he went missing for several days, said, “I did not handle this right. I should have told the president about my cancer diagnosis. I should have also told my team and the American public, and I take full responsibility.”
“I’m here with a clear message to other men, especially older men, “Sec. Austin continued. “Get screened. Get your regular checkups.”
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