The Ronnie Wallace Long Case

“The fate of millions of people—indeed the future of the black community itself—may depend on the willingness of those who care about racial justice to re-examine their basic assumptions about the role of the criminal justice system in our society.”
― Michelle Alexander, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

The excerpt below is a letter to the State of North Carolina from Ashleigh Ward an advocate regarding the incarceration of a one Ronnie Wallace Long for 38 years.

I am writing as a concerned citizen of the state of North Carolina, with regards to a serious injustice that has been allowed to continue for the past 38 years; the wrongful conviction of Ronnie Wallace Long in 1976. Ronnie has proclaimed his innocence for all these years and it turns out that the state withheld critical exculpatory evidence from his trial lawyers in 1976. This injustice has never been righted by the court system despite the state having engaged in misconduct by withholding exculpatory evidence that should have been presented to the jury.

Thirty-eight years ago a man was convicted by a jury that was not of his peers. Ronnie is Black and was convicted by an all White jury for burglary and rape of a prominent white woman in Concord, North Carolina. Ronnie was sentenced to two concurrent life sentences with absolutely "No evidence linking him to the crimes." A suspect's hair was found at the scene, right where the crime occurred. But when tested by the SBI against Ronnie's hairs, the agent concluded, "The hair found on the scene show to be DIFFERENT from suspect hairs." The state wants you to believe that an agent who has been employed with the SBI for over TWENTY years could NOT make the distinction between the hair of a dog and that of a human.

From the very beginning, Ronnie's constitutional rights have been violated. After the SBI lab reports were discovered in 2007, which showed the physical evidence gathered at the crime scene did not connect Ronnie to the crime, Ronnie was granted a post conviction hearing. Despite the strength of the evidence at the hearing, Ronnie was denied again his rights to a new trial. Despite providing overwhelming evidence, the state continuously denies Ronnie his rights. The only evidence presented against Ronnie at trial was the eye witness testimony of the victim whose identification of Ronnie as the perpetrator was suspect from the very beginning. Yet, the criminal justice system allows this injustice to continue.

The agents of the state of North Carolina committed perjury and to this day have not been held accountable for such actions. The North Carolina Supreme Court heard the case in 2009. Three judges voted to grant Ronnie a new trial. Three of the remaining four judges voted against giving Ronnie a new trial. Almost unheard of, the seventh judge declined to vote. The 3-3 TIE means Ronnie is STILL serving his sentence. NEVER in the history of the North Carolina Supreme Court has there ever been a 3-3 tie decision! This is why there is an odd number of judges so things of this nature will never happen.

How does an economically disadvantaged man fight the corrupt judicial system of the state of North Carolina? He and his family are at a loss...no where else to turn. It is time we get people to take a look at the deep rooted corruption in this case and ask that you support this man in his fight for justice.

I am asking, "What would you do if it was YOUR brother?"

When will the right person, the person who has the power and the resources necessary, take a stand against the corruption in the state of North Carolina? When will those involved in the corruption be held accountable and exposed for their unjust acts? "In God we trust," that one day the state of North Carolina will fly under a banner for equal justice for ALL. I will not stop until someone hears my plea and takes action to rectify the injustice that has been done by the state of North Carolina to Ronnie Wallace Long.

You may also contact me via email ashleighmlong276@gmail.com and/or my cell phone 910-890-7581.
Ronnie, his family, and his supporters continue to have Faith in God that one day justice will finally be served.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Ashleigh Ward

You watch a interview with him here can visit the Facebook Page on his behalf here and a petition vouching for his freedom here 

The author is on twitter: Follow @comradealong

The Great American Prison System

"I would say that the prison-industrial complex reminds us that we live with the ghost of slavery. Punishment was used in the aftermath of slavery in order to re-institute slavery...So the criminalization of blackness, which is at the core of vast prison population today, finds its roots in slavery and in the aftermath of slavery." -Angela Davis on Democracy Now!

If you haven’t heard this statistic already let it be repeated: There are more black men in prison, on parole, and/or on probation then were enslaved prior to the American Civil War. Maybe that statistic is just too much to take in but it seems that fact alone isn’t enough for Americans, of any ethnicity, to bring this up as a major societal issue. This locking up of black and brown men and women, is the largest aspect of a growing prison industrial complex that this country is facing. However, it does not encompass the problem as a whole. There is privatization of what should be a government regulated institution. There is inhumane solitary confinement running rampant in what is one of the harshest treatments of prisoners among industrialized nations. There is money pumping into the prison industrial complex that is destroying families, communities, and fighting the so called war on drugs. These points better prepare a look into a societal ill that plagues the people of this country, disproportionately the lower class citizens in the great American Plutocracy.

During his presidency, Richard Nixon famously uttered America’s fight in the “War on Drugs” which became “public enemy number one”. This allowed for the rolling out of archaic laws, harsh and incomprehensible drug sentencing, as well as the locking up of people, mostly black and brown, by the droves. The war on drugs inflated Americans prison population immensely. Since 1970 the prison population has risen an outrageous 700%. Likewise, the shift to private prisons has created a boom to increase and maintain prison populations as well as exploit and mistreat them.

Private Prison systems is big business, there are companies such as Victoria’s Secret and Microsoft that get their product produced through prison labor. This labor might as well be slave labor where these prisoners are paid pennies a day for their work. A growing sector of the prison industrial complex plays hand in hand with America’s crack down of immigrants. Peoples that have come to America and found without proper documentation can very well find themselves in prison as a limbo between staying in the states and being deported. Immigrant detention facilities rake in close to $5.1 billion a year. Recently there were hunger strikes in Washington and protests at these immigration detention centers by prisoners denouncing their treatment and punishments while there.

In the same manner, the treatment of prisoners is a dark aspect of the complex. Female inmates in California can find themselves sterilized behind bars. Similarly, other gruesome parts of prison would have to be solitary confinement and the death penalty. When in solitary confinement you are locked in a cell for up to 23 hours a day only able to move around in the sun for one hour and solitary can be for any length of time. Prisoners can spend months and maybe years in solitary confinement. A prisoner could be thrown into solitary for the most minuscule thing like missing role call or talking back to a prison guard. It has been studied that solitary can literally drive people crazy in a very dehumanizing practice. Record hunger strikes in California brought attentions to this problem. The international community condemns solitary as inhumane and a crime against basic human rights. The death penalty is another problem. Interestingly, the original injection method for the death sentence has been halted by the original European companies that don’t agree with the practice. Unfortunately, instead of reconsidering killing people this has led to states making scary chemical cocktails to kill prisoners with grueling consequences.

It is hard to believe that all of this is happening in a country that proclaims liberty and justice. However, organized people, movements, and petitions, help on the grassroots effort to change some of these problems.

An innocent man who was never given a fair trial with evidence withheld proving his innocence, has been incarcerated for the past 38 years. There is no evidence linking this man to this crime yet an all-white jury convicted him based on the victim's identification when officers conducted an unusual "lineup." The "lineup" consisted of the officers bringing the victim to court to see Long. We all know that eyewitness testimony alone cannot be sufficient enough to convict someone of a crime especially when there is forensic evidence proving the innocence of the defendant. In 2008, the assistant DA who helped prosecute Ronnie in 1976, testified on his behalf.
In the case of Ronnie Wallace Long the circumstances of his arrest and conviction raise many questions and in the repressive state of North Carolina it isn't surprising a black man sees justice denied. A petition for a proper forensic investigation is underway.

Many petitions for reform of the justice system and halt to the prison industrial complex leads us to Massachusetts. Saturday April 26th at Boston Commons, a Jobs Not Jails rally will come to the front steps of the state capitol. A call and petition for more Jobs and less jails is being brought up by the Ex-Prisoners and Prisoners Organizing for Community Advancement or EPOCA.

• Massachusetts taxpayers are expected to build 10,000 new prison units by 2023, costing $2 billion, unless dramatic reforms are made;
• Reforms in other states have led to greater public safety while actually closing prisons (e.g. New York, Texas);
• Reducing long-term unemployment also improves public safety state-wide;

The prison system is costing taxpayers’ money, breaking up families, and destroying communities the way it is run right now. All this disproportionately in the black, brown, and poor communities. We have incidences where rich people are deemed "too rich" or suffering made up disorders like “affluenza” avoiding jail, but we are locking up the poorer classes at historic rates. It is time for a critical debate in Washington, and in our local communities on how we can fix these problems. It is time to look towards breaking the chains the prison industrial complex has put on this country.

Thanks to Melissa Alexander's book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness for inspiration.

This piece was featured in emPower Magazine

Written by: E. Rey
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