Long, who is Black, was convicted by an all-white jury in 1976 for the rape of a “prominent white woman” in Concord, according to the Wrongful Convictions Clinic. The jury had been selected by local law enforcement leaders, who removed potential Black jurors from the jury pool, the clinic said. Despite no physical evidence connecting Long to the rape and burglary, he was accused of, his attorneys said the prosecution used the victim’s identification of Long as their main piece of evidence. But the prosecution’s evidence “was the product of a suggestive identification procedure arranged by the police to target Long, who did not match her original description of the assailant as a ‘yellow or really light-skinned Black male,'” the clinic said. Evidence collected from the crime scene and a local hospital, including more than 40 fingerprints that did not match Long’s and a rape kit, were not shared with the defense, according to the clinic. At the time of trial, Concord Police Department officers gave false testimony about the evidence. Long, 21 at the time, received two life sentences. After serving 44 years, 3 months and 17 days in prison, he was released in 2020.
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Justice for Men & Boys 