By Associated Press | April 8, 2021 at 4:02 PM EDT – Updated April 8 at 4:10 PM
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — A man who served nearly 44 years in prison for a crime he says he didn’t commit has received compensation from the state of North Carolina.
It is by law the state’s top compensation for victims of wrongful incarceration. Long was convicted of raping the widow of a Cannon Mills executive in 1976 by an all-white jury in Concord.
Potentially exculpatory evidence was either intentionally withheld from his defense team or disappeared. And there was a tampered pool of potential jurors.
A federal court overturned Long’s conviction. And he was pardoned by Gov. Roy Cooper.
Long walked free six weeks after his mother’s death.
Copyright 2021 AP. All rights reserved.
