When The System Fails You

NO PHYSICAL EVIDENCE… NO MATCHING DNA… NO MOTIVE… NO PRIOR CONVICTIONS… NO WITNESSES… YET RYAN FERGUSON IS STILL SERVING A 40 YEAR SENTENCE…

Ten years into a 40 year sentence after being wrongly convicted of murder. Repeatedly denied a retrial by Missouri, AFTER the only two witnesses admitted they lied on the stand. Where is the justice, Missouri?

How appalling it is to think that a man remains in prison for a crime he did not commit, even after the two "witnesses" that testified at Ryan's trial have admitted to lying and committing perjury? There is NOTHING to support Ryan's conviction.

Until April of 2012, there were two alleged eyewitnesses keeping Ryan in prison--Jerry Trump and Charles Erickson. Until April of 2012, Ryan had no chance of walking out of prison because of these two people.

Remarkably, Erickson and Trump took the stand in April of 2012 and admitted they lied at Ryan's trial when they implicated him in Kent Heitholt's murder. Both men subjected themselves to perjury charges by recanting. This has never happened before in an American courtroom in a habeas hearing.

Recanting witnesses may give affidavits admitting perjury but they rarely take the stand and admit perjury. This is the watershed event in Ryan Ferguson's case. There is no case in the United States where the only alleged eyewitnesses recanted in open court, the conviction has been upheld, and the person remains incarcerated.

Even celebrities like Zoe Saldana are getting involved in Ryan's case.

Ryan with his father and sister in happier times.

Via Facebook: FreeRyanFerguson

When Ryan was arrested in March 2004, his bail was set at $20 MILLION.

That's the highest bail EVER set for murder in US history.

Seems a little odd. A teenage kid from Columbia, MO? Really?

Charles Erikson came forward to police two years after the unsolved murder, saying he thought he might have been the killer but wasn't sure. His testimony is one of the two that locked Ryan up. He later recanted, saying he lied and that Ryan had nothing to do with the murder.

Jerry Trump was the second witness whose testimony put Ryan at the murder scene. He later recanted, asking Ryan's forgiveness for lying, saying he was pressured into testifying against him by the prosecutor.

When found guilty, Ryan told the court, "Some day the truth will come out and everyone will see that I am innocent, and I will be free. And that will be a great day, because on that day the justice system will finally have done justice."

Via freeryanferguson.com

Ryan is now represented by attorney Kathleen Zellner who has successfully secured the release of many men who have been wrongfully convicted. On January 30th, 2013 Zellner filed Ryan’s latest petition with the Western District Appellate Court in Kansas City.

However Chris Koster, the attorney general for Missouri, requested his petition be denied, say no new evidence has been entered. Yet both witnesses have recanted their testimonies and swear Ryan is innocent. How is this not new evidence??

Help us in the fight against injustice. Visit Ryan's page at freeryanferguson.com