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Unjust & Unsolved

1: Ronnie Long

Unjust & Unsolved

Daisy

True Crime

4.92.9K Ratings

🗓️ 10 September 2020

⏱️ 44 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

In 1976 Concord, NC, a man broke into the home of a prominent white widow and violently beat and raped her. Ronnie Long, a 20-year-old black man, was given consecutive life sentences for rape and burglary. In a mostly segregated town, Ronnie was convicted by an all white jury, with no evidence linking him to the crime, an alibi, and only a shaky witness ID from the survivor. Since then, it was revealed that the prosecution witheld exculpatory evidence for Ronnie. There is also DNA evidence Ronnie is trying to get tested to prove who the real attacker was. Ronnie, now 64, has spent 44 years in prison; however, major updates happened during this case while we were reporting it.

Learn more about Ronnie's case and how to help:
https://freeronnielongnow.org/

For more information and a complete list of sources for this episode, visit www.unjustandunsolved.com

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

My name is Maggie Freeling.

0:04.0

A majoringist and producer and this is unjust and unsolved.

0:09.0

A podcast about people who I believe are wrongfully incarcerated for crimes that are actually

0:15.7

unsolved.

0:16.7

You've surely heard stories like these on the news, but the thing is, the ones you've

0:21.4

heard about barely scratch the surface.

0:24.6

The Innocence Project gives a conservative estimate that about 20,000 innocent people

0:30.4

are currently locked away in US prisons.

0:34.4

After reading some of these stories, I felt compelled to do something.

0:37.8

So I sent 20 letters to people who are locked up despite evidence pointing away from them.

0:43.5

Some responded through mail, some emailed, and some called me on contraband cell phones.

0:49.1

But all wanted their stories to be heard.

0:52.2

So I left my public radio job and decided to do just that.

0:58.3

In each episode, I speak with those people, their loved ones, supporters, and lawyers,

1:03.3

to shed light on how they wound up incarcerated for decades, despite the evidence, and how

1:08.6

that means the crimes they were convicted of are still unsolved.

1:16.1

This week I'm telling the story of Ronnie Wallace long, and I'm going to mention right

1:20.9

off the bat that as I reported this episode, there were some major developments that

1:26.0

will get to later.

1:27.4

But first, there's a new push to release a black man who says he's been wrongly imprisoned

1:31.9

for more than 40 years for the rape of a white woman in North Carolina.

1:35.2

In 1976, a man broke into the home of a prominent white widow and violently beat and raped

...

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