In North Carolina, Ronnie Long was awarded a historic $25 million settlement for his wrongful conviction and 44-year-long imprisonment. Long, a Black man, was convicted of raping a white woman by an all-white jury in 1976. He was exonerated and released in 2020 after a court ruled his due process rights were violated, citing “extreme and continuous police misconduct” which included concealing lab evidence that showed Long was not linked to the crime scene. Ronnie Long has put some funds from a previous settlement toward efforts to reform the criminal justice system.