Ryan Ferguson

Each year in July, great fanfare envelopes our nation as we join together in celebration of a basic human right: freedom.

For Southwest Florida resident Ryan Ferguson, the concept of freedom resonates more now than it has in at least 10 years.

On Nov. 1, 2001, Kent Heitholt, sports editor for the Columbia (Missouri) Daily Tribune, was slain in the newspapers parking lot around 2:10 a.m. Two years later, a young man named Charles Erickson began publicly sharing recurring dreams that he and his former classmate, Ryan Ferguson, were involved.

What followed was viewed by many as a series of finger-pointing, confusing confessions, questionable police work, awkward eyewitnesses and a prosecution team hell-bent on solving the case.

The result: 19-year-old Ryan Ferguson was sentenced to 40 years in prison based almost exclusively on eyewitness accounts from teenage dreamer Erickson and Tribune janitor Jerry Trump who, at trial, gained the ability to positively identify Erickson and Ferguson.

Erickson, through a plea bargain, received a 25-year sentence.

With the assistance of civil rights attorney Kathleen Zellner, Ferguson returned to court. In April 2012, Trump and Erickson faced possible perjury charges and admitted on the stand they had lied at Fergusons original trial.

Fergusons conviction was vacated by the state of Missouri on Nov. 5, 2013, on the basis that the prosecution withheld evidence from the defense team. At age 29, he was released on Nov. 13 after spending almost a decade in prison.

Just like the millions of other Americans who pursue careers, make their own choices and stand by their ideals, Ferguson had his freedom.

Read more from the original source:
Business Class: Ryan Ferguson is taking freedom seriously