OJ playing golf, but this guy sits in prison? 4 year old thread bumped.

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FreeRyanFerguson.com
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http://www.freeryanferguson.com/

I saw this story last night on a 48 Hours re-run. It is unbelievable to me that this case even went to trial, much less got a conviction. I certainly think it's possible that he did it. But if you care at all about justice, this will really bother you. Scary to think that all it takes is a stupid jury to send an innocent man to prison.
 
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Illini- We are talking Columbia, Missouri. The opening line of the opening statement at the trial probably was over half the jurors heads. Putting up with Quin Snyder as a coach probably fogged up their minds a little.

It does sound like the guy might have got the shaft. It will be interesting to follow this.
 

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what made them go to that Chuck dude 2 years later to begin with?
He had a dream that he committed the murders and went to the police. He told them he thought he did it, but wasn't sure, and had none of the details. It would be hilarious if there wasn't a kid sitting in prison for the next 40 years over this. What an embarassment to our justice system.
 

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Illini- We are talking Columbia, Missouri. The opening line of the opening statement at the trial probably was over half the jurors heads. Putting up with Quin Snyder as a coach probably fogged up their minds a little.

It does sound like the guy might have got the shaft. It will be interesting to follow this.
Cy, how you doing? Haven't seen you on here in awhile.

Jurors were so fucking stupid, and some of them were interviewed on 48 Hours. Your post is right on. The kid has already been denied on one appeal. Since he's in prison, I hope he did it. But based on the evidence, this is a travesty.
 

morally bankrupt
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Is there any unbiased link that has information on the background of the case?

I can't read a site that has "Not guilty" flooded in the background design. That's just ridiculous.
 
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^^i was wondering the same thing, i read some stuff off cbsnews, but why would Chuck make up the whole story and take a plea instead of professing his innocence. also disturbing that Ryan didn't show any emotion at all after being told his verdict. not many people could be calm and collected if they just got 40 years for a crime they didn't commit. lot of holes in the prosecutions case though, but then again it seemed sort of biased
 

Woah, woah, Daddy's wrong, Mommy's right.
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Wiki entry, that website is all over the place and difficult to follow

Ferguson and Erickson

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<!-- start content --> Ryan Ferguson and Chuck Erickson were convicted of the brutal murder of Columbia Tribune Sports Editor Kent Heitholt. The crime occurred on November 1, 2001 in Columbia, Missouri. At the time of the crime, a white janitor, Jerry Trump, caught a glimpse of two young white men running away from Heitholt’s car around the time of the murder. The janitor said he could not provide a detailed description of them. Two years after the crime, after reading anniversary newspaper coverage, Erickson began telling friends he dreamed he had killed Heitholt. When police questioned him later, Erickson confessed but gave videotaped details inconsistent with the crime. He also named his friend Ryan Ferguson as his accomplice. Erickson said that following the murder, he and Ferguson went back to the bar they had been at earlier. However, the bar had closed more than a half-hour before the murder. Erickson confessed, that he, then 17, beat the 6'3", 315 lb. Heitholt with a tire iron just once. An autopsy showed Heitholt was beaten multiple times. Erickson said that afterwards, Ferguson, also 17, strangled the victim. He did not know how, and seemed surprised when told that Heitholt had been strangled with his own belt.
There was no physical evidence linking either defendant to the crime. Nevertheless, Erickson pled to the crime, and was the state's star witness at trial against Ferguson. The janitor, who had little memory at the time of the crime, identified Ferguson at trial. Ferguson is not absolutely sure that Erickson was not at the crime, but is adamant about his innocence. The jury could not get over the fact that Erickson was willing to implicate himself in the crime, if he did not do it. Ferguson will be eligible for parole in September 2042. Ryan Ferguson was issued the highest bail in the history of the United States of America $20,000,000 for a young man that had never been to court except for a speeding ticket. View the YouTube video and watch Erickson being spoon-fed by Detective Short
YouTube I Have You Ever Had A Cop In Your Face Part I http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCyKnc1BVV8&mode=related&search
The following is part of Ryan Ferguson's interrogation YouTube II Have You Ever Had A Cop In Your Face Part II http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5McAuB6zhH0
The following is the 911 call the night of the crime You can see for yourself Jerry Trump knew little about the suspects
911Call November 1, 2001 http://www.freeryanferguson.com/911tape.shtml
Ryan Ferguson's Web Page FreeRyanFerguson.com
http://www.freeryanferguson.com/index.html
Sole Witness Story Columbia Tribune Jerry Trump's is never mentioned Ornt sole witness Columbia Tribune April 2003 http://archive.columbiatribune.com/2003/apr/20030405news003.asp
Great Summation of This Case Jane Alexander One Murder, Two victims: The Wrongful Conviction of Ryan Ferguson http://www.crimemagazine.com/07/ryan_ferguson,0722-7.htm







[edit] Reference

  • Part of what convicted the defendant Ryan Ferguson was that several of the jury members made their decision during jury selection when they were told by the prosecutor that the person Ryan was with had pled guilty. Several jury members stated on CBS 48 Hours that they had decided Ryan Ferguson was guilty before he took the stand. During cross-examination the defendant was respectful and presented a positive demeanor to the court. The prosecutor asked Ryan why he did not offer the police his phone records since these would help prove his innocence. The defendant explained that he was never asked about his cell phone calls by the police the day of his arrest nor did he think about their significance at that time. After all, he was innoncent and thought the police would realize their mistake and release him. The term cell phone was not used by either the police, Ryan Ferguson or Charles Erickson. Ryan only remembered the cell phone calls a few days after his arrest. The police never spoke to Ryan after March 10, 2004 the day of his arrest. Ryan told the prosecutor he never expected to be charged with a crime he didn't commit. He then asked the prosecutor if he would ever expect that to happen to him, and when the prosecutor announced he didn't kill anyone, the defendant declared he didn't either. That produced reactionary clapping in the audience as they were upset at the prosecutor's bullying which went beyond normal crossing-examination questioning.
In his closing argument the prosecutor lied to the jury saying there was not a hair in the victim's hand but in crime scene photo 199-32 one can clearly see the hair. The FBI Lab reported the hair in the victim's hand did not match Ryan Ferguson, Charles Erickson or the victim.
<!-- Saved in parser cache with key enwiki:pcache:idhash:8512354-0!1!0!default!!en!2 and timestamp 20070729131621 --> Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferguson_and_Erickson"
 

FreeRyanFerguson.com
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^^i was wondering the same thing, i read some stuff off cbsnews, but why would Chuck make up the whole story and take a plea instead of professing his innocence. also disturbing that Ryan didn't show any emotion at all after being told his verdict. not many people could be calm and collected if they just got 40 years for a crime they didn't commit. lot of holes in the prosecutions case though, but then again it seemed sort of biased
To me, if a kid turns himself in for a crime that he had a dream about last night and thinks he did it 2 years ago, he is not a credible witness. If he doesn't know any details, only has a feeling, then you can't use his testimony against somebody else. I don't care how articulate he is in court, once he's been fed all of the details. His testimony is the only thing they have on Ferguson, besides the janitor's testimony that Ferguson was who he saw. But that guy couldn't give a description of the kids the night of the murder, and it was only after he saw their pictures in the paper that he called and said that they were the kids that he saw. Two eyewitnesses, both of them not credible. That's it. The footprints at the scene don't match either kid. No evidence in the car or home of either kid. No evidence at the crime scene that put them there. And this kid gets convicted. It's unbelievable. If only there had been one juror with an IQ above 100. He could have convinced all of the other sheep that the only reasonable verdict was not guilty. Hell, you have to acquit the kid if the standard was 51% sure, not sure beyond reasonable doubt.
 

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The problem with these type of shows is that you never really get the whole picture. Are there innocent people in jail? Absolutely. Was watching the show last night and it was an update about Jeffrey MacDonald. He was the army doctor who was convicted of killing his wife and kids in 1970.

When you hear both sides you tend to agree with both. The problem is you never get to hear all the testimony.
 

FreeRyanFerguson.com
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The problem with these type of shows is that you never really get the whole picture. Are there innocent people in jail? Absolutely. Was watching the show last night and it was an update about Jeffrey MacDonald. He was the army doctor who was convicted of killing his wife and kids in 1970.

When you hear both sides you tend to agree with both. The problem is you never get to hear all the testimony.
That's why you're innocent until proven guilty. I think this kid might have done it. But from the evidence presented, it's not possible to prove beyond reasonable doubt. I really can't believe it went to trial.
 

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From the CBS site:



Speaking to 48 Hours, a group of jurors say they believed Chuck's story.

"He wants to clear his conscience but he wasn’t sure how to do it. And I think he was striving when he was talking to the other friends of his how to get it out," one male juror said.

"Did any of you at any time through this trial then think that it was possible that Chuck Erickson had made this up?" Moriarty asked.

"I never felt like that Chuck Erickson had made it up," another male juror said.

"He looked over at Mr. Ferguson and the pleading look in his eye like, 'Come on buddy, you know you did it.' It really cinched it for me," a female juror added.

And the jurors didn't believe Chuck’s memories were false memories implanted by the police as the defense memory expert had testified. Did that at all seem possible?

"Not in my mind. Just common sense. What was the reason that you’d make something up like that?" one juror said.

Another juror said he was won over by the janitor who, while initially unable to describe the killers, pointed to Ryan in court. "He’d seen 'em and pointed 'em out, and that was pretty much all you needed right there," the male juror said.

The jurors say they were not really bothered by the lack of physical evidence. It all came down to which witness was most believable.
 

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He's giving them now. Seriously, that dude needs to be let go.
 

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I didnt watch the video, just read the report. Why did the guy go to the police to begin with?
 
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someone called the police on him, because at a party he mentioned that he dreamt of the crime
 

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