CONVICTION OVERTURNED MO - Kent Heitholt, 48, found murdered, Columbia, 1 Nov 2001

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Ryan Ferguson was 21 when he was sentenced to 40 years in prison for a murder he says he didn't commit, after his friend Chuck Erikson, who was too drunk to remember their night out, implicated them in the killing after reading about it in a newspaper two years later. The only evidence linking Ferguson to the death of Kent Heitholt in Columbia, Missouri, is his friend's claim, even though Erikson didn't know how the journalist had died and later testified that Ferguson wasn't involved

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/ushome/index.html
 
Another case they are not able to solve. This is why they feel the need to arrest and prosecute the ones who choose to buy fake goods off the streets. What a joke!
 
I read over everything I read before: the Trib articles, the website, the FB, etc. etc., and damn - there's no case at all against Ferguson, with the recantations. True, accomplices and witness do occasionally recant for one false reason or another, but - damn. Not in this case, I don't believe.

Convenient of the other employee to get rid of that car straight away.
 
wfgodot said:
I read over everything I read before: the Trib articles, the website, the FB, etc. etc., and damn - there's no case at all against Ferguson, with the recantations. True, accomplices and witness do occasionally recant for one false reason or another, but - damn. Not in this case, I don't believe.

Convenient of the other employee to get rid of that car straight away.
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Especially since in the Ferguson case, BOTH recanters risked lengthy sentences for perjury (and in Erickson's case a revocation of his plea agreement) for recanting their testimony.

What a witness has to gain or lose is supposed to guide a judge or jury in evaluating the witness' credibility. (It says so in jury instructions.) Both recanters had everything to lose and nothing tangible to gain by changing their stories.
 
Even years ago I did not believe Ryan did this.. I don't think that Erickson did either.

But someone did. Ryan deserves an appeal. There is NO evidence on this kid. NOTHING.

What is next for him? I hope they can fight the denied Appeal.
 
Today is the day.

Saw on the news today that he could win his release??
 
He could win his release and if that happens he will walk out of jail within a few weeks.
 
This case truly scares me because for so long I've been one of those people who generally thinks that if someone has been convicted of a crime, they're probably guilty. But this one? Wow! Talk about an investigation that was just FUBAR-ed from the first step....smh

If it was a robbery, then why didn't they take the wallet?
Who's hair was clutched in his hand? I know forensics showed that it didn't belong to Ferguson or Erickson, but does that mean they actually got DNA from it? From what I understand, a hair has to have the root still attached before they can get DNA from it (someone correct me if I'm wrong). If they did get dna, I wonder if they put it into the system.
I can understand the judges' disbelief with Ericksons' changing stories, he's had so many of them, it would be hard to believe him if he said the sky was blue. But so many other people have come back and recanted.

Imo, the investigating officers should be censured, and the prosecutor (now a judge ) should be removed from the bench and investigated by the Bar Association.
Ryan Ferguson should be freed and a NEW investigation should begin to find the true murderer of Mr. Heitholt.
It's a shame that because of pride and politics one man is still in prison and another mans' family has been denied true justice.
 
From what I understand, a hair has to have the root still attached before they can get DNA from it (someone correct me if I'm wrong).
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You need the root to get nuclear DNA, but you can get mitochondrial DNA from a hair with no root attached.
 
I have kept up with this case since it first aired. I have never liked the way Ryan was convicted. I felt the entire "dream" scenario his friend described is hogwash. I do not think he should have ever been allowed to testify to things he could not remember or state were actual fact. The one thing that has always amazed me though is Ryans total lack of emotion through all of this. I have seen courtroom footage and a couple interviews.......and I have never seen the slightest bit of emotion from him. That bothers me....I know some people just are not the emotional type.......but it just nags at me that through all of this........nothing........
 
Still_Seek_Answers said:
I have kept up with this case since it first aired. I have never liked the way Ryan was convicted. I felt the entire "dream" scenario his friend described is hogwash. I do not think he should have ever been allowed to testify to things he could not remember or state were actual fact. The one thing that has always amazed me though is Ryans total lack of emotion through all of this. I have seen courtroom footage and a couple interviews.......and I have never seen the slightest bit of emotion from him. That bothers me....I know some people just are not the emotional type.......but it just nags at me that through all of this........nothing........
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---He was advised (perhaps unwisely) by his defense attorney to act that way at trial, and not show emotion. But put that aside, inferring guilt or innocence from the accused's demeanor is not a substitute for looking at the evidence, and the evidence excludes Ryan Ferguson. There was all kinds of physical evidence at that crime scene. NONE of it matched Ryan Ferguson. It's simply implausible that these two high school twerps could have taken down a massive man like Kent Heitholt in a bloody murder and left no trace.
 
The_One_Eyed_Jack said:
---He was advised (perhaps unwisely) by his defense attorney to act that way at trial, and not show emotion. But put that aside, inferring guilt or innocence from the accused's demeanor is not a substitute for looking at the evidence, and the evidence excludes Ryan Ferguson. There was all kinds of physical evidence at that crime scene. NONE of it matched Ryan Ferguson. It's simply implausible that these two high school twerps could have taken down a massive man like Kent Heitholt in a bloody murder and left no trace.
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I agree that the evidence does not prove his guilt. I stated clearly that the way he was convicted was hogwash. I find it hard to imagine that two high school kids could have pulled this off without leaving trace evidence. Then again.....I find it amazing that people can just vanish......as if they never existed.......yet it happens everyday. I mark few things as completely impossible.

I do think he deserves a new trial. I do not think the dream evidence should be allowed in. I also do not think it is my place to play judge and jury and decide his innocence or guilt.
 
I saw this case on a true crime show and it still haunts me. Two men's lives were taken over some really stupid stuff. Weak case by the prosecution. I hope he gets his release.
 
Tiger09 said:
I saw this case on a true crime show and it still haunts me. Two men's lives were taken over some really stupid stuff. Weak case by the prosecution. I hope he gets his release.
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Now that I agree with!! I am amazed they are taking this long to issue a decision. I know it is an important decision but given the recantations I thought a decision would come quickly.
 
How often is he allowed to appeal? Can he file an appeal right after this one?
 
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