Dream/Killer 2015 - NBC news online -
Halloween October 31st 2001 where was I when this guy got killed? I didn’t know what I had done that night. Dream/Killer, Chuck Erickson, Netflix 2015
Chuck’s story matches with the evidence; yours [Ryan Ferguson] don’t. ibid. rozzer in jam-jar
We’re trying to figure out how this came about. ibid. Ryan’s dad
Ferguson gets bond: $20 million is record. ibid. Tribune article
We know there is no physical evidence. ibid. Ryan’s dad
I never thought I’d be arrested for a crime I didn’t commit. ibid. Ryan
I am going to prove my son is innocent. ibid. Ryan’s dad
The more we learned information that the defense did not know about, people who never testified that should have testified, then you begin to think, Oh my gosh this really could be an innocent man. ibid. Erin Moriarty, CBS 48 Hours
Free Ryan. ibid. Facebook & Youtube campaigns
A prosecutor can fabricate testimony; he can put up perjured testimony … He has absolute immunity. ibid. new defense brief
They ruled in Ryan’s favour. ibid. mom
We’ve got 20,000 people locked up that are innocent. And that’s conservative. ibid.
This has been disturbing at every level. ibid.
One year ago today, Ryan Ferguson was released from prison after spending nearly 10 years in custody for a crime he has always insisted he did not commit.
Ferguson was 19 years old when he was arrested and charged in the Halloween 2001 murder and robbery of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt. Although none of the physical evidence at the parking lot crime scene in Columbia, Mo., matched him, Ferguson was convicted after a high school friend, Charles Erickson, testified they had committed the crime together. A janitor working the night shift also identified him as one of the suspects.
A decade later, during a court hearing to review new evidence in the case, both men admitted to lying on the stand during Ferguson’s murder trial. Ferguson was released on November 12, 2013, after a Missouri appeals court ruled the verdict was ‘not worthy of confidence’.
The morning after his release, Ferguson told Dateline correspondent that he was ‘stressed out’ thinking about the challenges ahead of him. He anticipated transitioning to life outside of prison would not be easy, but was determined to make the most of his new-found freedom.
In the year that’s passed, Ferguson has criss-crossed the country speaking about his experience with the justice system and raising awareness about the prevalence of wrongful convictions, citing a statistic that estimates at least 40,000 innocent people may currently be incarcerated. ‘I feel like I have this opportunity to speak for them,’ Ferguson said in a recent interview. NBC news online article 12th November 2014, ‘I Have My Wish: Ryan Ferguson on first year of freedom. One year ago today, Ryan Ferguson was released from prison after spending nearly 10 years in custody for a crime he has always insisted he didn’t commit’