Ryan W. Ferguson

In April 2016, it was announced that Ferguson would be the host of an upcoming MTV series, "Unlocking The Truth." The series is described as a serialized documentary following other possible cases of wrongful conviction.

A documentary titled dream/killer detailing the case and Bill Ferguson's journey to free his son debuted at the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival. It aired in August 2016 as a two-hour special on Investigation Discovery network.

On March 11, 2014, Ferguson filed a civil suit against 11 individuals as well as Boone County, Missouri and the city of Columbia in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Missouri. The suit alleges suppression of exculpatory evidence, fabrication of evidence, reckless or intentional failure to investigate, malicious prosecution, conspiracy to deprive constitutional rights, false arrest, and defamation. The defendants include several police officers as well as prosecutor Kevin Crane. Ferguson won the suit which netted him in the region of $11m.

Both witnesses later recanted their testimony, claiming they were coerced to lie by the police, and the prosecuting attorney, Kevin Crane. Kevin Crane is now a circuit court Judge. The 2005 conviction was eventually vacated on November 5, 2013, by the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals, and Ferguson was released on the evening of November 12, after he spent almost a decade in prison. He won $11m in a civil suit against Missouri police. The case has been featured on 48 Hours, Dateline, and numerous other newspapers and media outlets.

Zellner filed an original writ of habeas corpus with the Missouri Court of Appeals, Western District, citing a number of flaws in the criminal trial. Notable among these were proof that the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense team – Brady violations. Through the questioning of prosecution investigators by Zellner's law partner, Douglas Johnson, at the habeas corpus hearing, it was uncovered that during an interview with Trump's wife, she told investigators that she did not remember sending him any newspapers. This interview was not disclosed to the defense team. The Court of Appeals described "a pattern of non-disclosures" by the police and prosecutors that infected Ferguson's conviction.

Ferguson's conviction was vacated in November 2013 on the basis that the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense team. Following the reversal, the Attorney General of Missouri announced he does not plan to refile charges against Ferguson. The case remains unsolved, and in 2013 the police said they are considering reopening the case.

In September 2013, the first book about the Ryan Ferguson case was released: Free Ryan Ferguson: 101 Reasons Why Ryan Ferguson Should Be Released, by Brian D'Ambrosio. The book details allegations of police misconduct and intimidation by Prosecutor Crane. There are also accounts of bogus police reports and alleged witnesses claiming that affidavits against Ferguson were signed in their names. D'Ambrosio proposes alternate theories and examines the allegations against Michael Boyd, the final person to speak with the victim. The case has been featured on 48 Hours, Dateline, and numerous other newspapers and media outlets.

Following the conviction, Ferguson gained a following with wrongful conviction advocacy groups. In 2009, high-profile Chicago attorney Kathleen Zellner took over Ferguson's case working pro bono. In 2012, both Erickson and Trump recanted their trial testimony in statements obtained by Zellner and her investigator. In the subsequent habeas corpus hearing, both Erickson and Trump admitted that they lied at Ferguson's trial.

The police offered Erickson a plea deal in exchange for testimony against Ferguson at his trial, which took place in 2005. Along with Erickson, Trump testified that he saw Erickson and Ferguson at the scene. Trump testified that while he was in jail on unrelated charges, his wife sent him a news article about the crime. He claims that as he removed the newspaper from the envelope, he saw photos of Erickson and Ferguson and immediately recognized them as the two men standing over Heitholt on the evening of the murder.

In the recorded interrogation, Erickson seems to have little knowledge of the crime. He told police, "It's just so foggy... I could be sitting here fabricating all of it." At one point he was asked questions about the weapon used to strangle Heitholt. Erickson replied that he thought it was a shirt. When the police officer told him that it was not, he replied, "Maybe a bungee cord?" Eventually the police officer told Erickson that the weapon was Heitholt's own belt. Erickson replied, "I don't remember that at all." After much prodding by investigators, Erickson eventually told police that he and Ferguson robbed Heitholt for drinking money. In March 2004, Erickson and Ferguson were arrested and charged with the murder.

Trump recanted the story about his wife sending him the newspaper article. Trump claimed that Crane pressured him into testifying against Ferguson, and said that the first time he saw the newspaper photos was in 2004 at the prosecutor’s office, after he was released from prison. "On more than one occasion, he said 'I've got the right two guys' — almost like a cheerleader," Trump said, alleging Crane also showed him a Tribune newspaper with Ferguson's photo and said it would be "helpful" for him to identify Ferguson as having been at the crime scene.

Soon after he was arrested, Ferguson began devoting his time to fitness and health. "I know you're innocent, but while you're in there, I can't protect you," his father told him four days after his arrest in 2004. "You have to do everything you can to make yourself stronger, faster, and smarter to survive." He began exercising and lifting weights.

The crime had been unsolved for two years when, in October 2003, local media again covered the murder. Erickson reportedly had several dreams about the crime after seeing an article in a newspaper and, a few days later, mentioned the murder to Ferguson asking him if he thought he may have been involved. "It was crazy that someone had been murdered a couple blocks away from where we had been partying," said Erickson. Ferguson reassured him that he was not involved in the crime. Over time, Erickson says, he began to think more and more about the murders and about the fact that he could not remember that evening.

In November 2003, Erickson read an article in the local newspaper that included a sketch of a possible suspect in the case. Erickson thought the sketch resembled him and became more concerned. He told friends Nick Gilpin and Art Figueroa about his worries and they notified police.

Kent Heitholt was found beaten and strangled shortly after 2 am on November 1, 2001, in the parking lot of the Columbia Daily Tribune, where he worked as a sports editor. Heitholt's murder went unsolved for two years until police received a tip about a man named Charles Erickson. Erickson could not remember the evening of the murder and was concerned that he may have been involved with the murder. Erickson, who spent that evening partying with Ferguson, was interrogated by police. Despite initially seeming to have no memory of the evening of the murders, he eventually confessed and implicated Ferguson as well. Ferguson was convicted in the Fall of 2005 on the basis of Erickson's testimony as well as the testimony of a building employee.

In the early morning hours of November 1, 2001, 48-year-old Kent Heitholt was murdered in the parking lot of The Columbia Daily Tribune where he worked as a sports editor. He was last seen alive by co-worker Michael Boyd. Boyd told police that they had a work related conversation in the parking lot between 2:12 and 2:20 am.

Ryan W. Ferguson (born October 19, 1984) is an Australian American who spent nearly 10 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of a 2001 murder in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. At the time of the murder, Ferguson was a 17-year-old high school student.