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Subscribe to RSSA sports editor at the Columbia Daily Tribune was found dead on Halloween night, 2001. Two years later, after an anonymous 911 call was made, two men were taken into custody. One claims he was never there, the other takes the stand and swears under oath that they committed the murder together. Keith Morrison reports on the family’s struggle to clear their son’s name.
The Mystery on Halloween Night premieres Friday, August 5th, at 9pm/8c.
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I sure will be glued to the tv for the evening episode, have to work from 8:30 am to 4:30, luckily I will be home to watch the airing of the show. All I have ever wanted from the first time I saw this show aired on 48 hours was justice. Justice was not done in Columbia MO when the wrongfully convicted Ryan Ferguson, and justice will not be served until the people there that hold any power to stop this step up to the plate and admit they were wrong.
Is ruining a young man's life really so much more important than just admitting, that on this one, they just simply did get it wrong, and that wrong continues with each minute, actually each second he remains incarcerated. We as americans and everyone out there from any country should be willing to take a stand on this one. To do otherwise is to say it's ok to let those that vowed to serve, protect, and uphold the law abuse it in any way they choose. A young man's life is at stake here, and we need to not be afraid to stand up to those in power that let it happen, nor those that let it continue to happen.
I don't mind anyone emailing me, Jdavis481960@aol.com and I welcome any suggestions that can help right this wrong that was done to this young man and his family. There isn't one letter I will not write, one person I won't contact, or anything I can do if it will help see justice served. It certainly was not served that day when Ryan Ferguson was convicted, and it won't be served until he is free. It is so simple, why can't those that could help do so? For those of us that can, keep writing letters and if you have to badger these people and step on a few toes, know you are doing it in the name of justice!
Jan Davis
Ryan Ferguson and his family have suffered outrageously. However, what I find most enraging about this story is the actions of the police and the DA's office. Story after story, episode after episode of real life crime dramas shows the police and ADAs to be conviction driven... not caring one bit about the truth, only about making an arrest and having that arrest stick in court. Perhaps if our criminal justice professionals did not work under elected officials (sheriffs and county DAs), they would not be distracted by the promises of commendations and promotions causing them to see only their own "bright futures" which they seem not to care are built on the destruction of innocent lives.
Any one with a brain could see they got it wrong.
Every now and then you hear about or see something that continues to haunt you. That is exactly how I felt after watching the first 48 Hours episode about Ryan Ferguson. I have been following Ryan's case ever since and have even written to Ryan and his family (And received replies!).
It just amazes me how in this day and age, that a judicial system can be so corrupt. It was clear from the very beginning, from there being not one shred of physical evidence that Ryan was even at the scene of the murder, to the interrogation of Chuck Erickson where he didn't even know what was used to strangle the victim until a detective TOLD him...that this entire case was all wrong.
Ryan Ferguson has had SEVEN YEARS of his life taken away for no reason, and I believe it is because no one in the Missouri judicial system ever wanted to go against (then) Prosecutor Crane or to show just how badly their police dept. bungled this case. I hope and pray that instead of Ryan and his family having to go through yet another trial, that he is exonerated and sent home, where he should have been sent seven long years ago.
I don't understand why Ryan is still in prison. It was proven that both men, one being a friend of Ryan's who was high on drugs at the time, both lied about Ryan being there. The judge should let Ryan out on that evidence alone because that is what the jury used to sentence him and it was all a lie. I pray that Ryan will get out soon and will be able to go home and try to put his life back together again.
I think that one of the biggest travesties is that Ryan Ferguson, with all the evidence that proved he was innocent, still sits in prison, while someone like Casey Anthony walks free. It has, sadly, made me lose all faith in our country's judicial system.
I am appalled that this is a day in the life of our judicial system. If the fate of a citizen is in the hands of lawyers and police, it is with that ownership of justice that they provide their service. Allowing lawyers and police to coax witnesses is an obstruction of justice. If jury's can be misinformed and misguided, then what service are we providing for the innocent? Are we simply looking for conviction at any cost? Shame on those who hide behind the law to cover their own misdeeds.
You know what is so scary? That if this could happen to a guy like Ryan, it can happen to ANY OF US OR OUR KIDS! Just the thought that someone could accuse my teenage son of being involved in a murder (or any other heinous crime), even if he was no where near the crime scene, and that he could be thrown in prison with the judicial system ignoring all the evidence of innocence, is enough to give me nightmares. : /
From the first law course I took to all the programs on TV re: the justice system, my
feelings are that justice is not just.
Will someone please tell me how I will be able to find out if this travesty of justice is overturned...will Dateline keep it's viewers appraised of the outcome? His innocence is obvious.
Saw Dateline last night. I admit the show was biased in Ryan Ferguson’s defense. Nonetheless, facts are facts. Why didn’t Ryan’s attorney catch the discrepancy with the time issue of when the bar closed and the story from Chuck Erickson. OMG. Why, why, why were the phone records not looked at right away? I’m not a lawyer and have a brain injury yet even I thought of it right away. Did she not have access to Chuck’s taped interrogation? Anyone could see that he was being fed information. Did she not notice how many times his story changed? Was she not privy to some of that information or did she just overlook it? If she just simply overlooked it, then she should not practice again. This was an inexcusable defense.
I do simply not understand why the last person to see him was not investigated more thoroughly as a suspect even though they did find two sets of prints. He had motive.
Did they thoroughly check the dorm where the police dog led them? It’s too bad that these two gents are so afraid of being prime suspects that they won’t come forward. Yet they let an innocent man spend years in jail. How can they sleep at night?
I believe Ryan is innocent. I also believe Chuck is innocent but needs a lot of mental health care. I’ve only covered a few of the issues here. The saddest issue of all is, of course, the life that was taken back on that Halloween night.
I fell asleep before the program ended, but I thought there was another suspect about to be discovered. Did that happen? and is there further information about that?
I thought of those things right away also. What about the hair in his hand. They even said it didn't match either defendants. Where did the hair come from?? It was never mentioned again. I wish I could have heard the closing arguments. Weren't all these points brought out? The timeline..bar closed at 1:30..he was killed at 2:30..so how can the Chuck's story on the stand still be correct that they left to get money..come back for more drinks? What about the story of getting cigarettes...did anyone canvass the stores to see if two guys went to a store around 3 in the area? They would have had blood on them, did they bother to verify if they did go back to the bar? What about anybody in the bar?? The girl he talked to on the phone at a quarter to 2? His defense did not do very well. Like they said, he had a credit card..why did he have to go rob somebody. My closing argument would have been looking at that jury and saying..this can happen to you. You can have someone say you did something and wouldn't you want more than somebody's word to convict and put you away in prison? Casey Anthony's jury said they had no evidence..these people had way less than her! I don't get it. Shame on that custodian!! How can he live with himself, I am sure he has kids and grandkids. People just don't think of others outside of their own world.
Last night Dateline reported that the night of the murder, bloody footprints led police to a college dorm. And that is as far as they went? To the front door? How many college students could possibly have been living there in those dorms? All it would have taken was a check of the bottom of shoes for blood on every student living there and I bet they would have caught the real murderers that same night!
The POLICE DEPT. bungled this case horrendously! One of the FIRST things they should have done was to check that cell phone tower and it would have proved right from the start that Ryan was HOME on his cell phone when the murder occurred!
I thought of that too, but unfortunately it was already 2 years past when that guy Chuck confessed.
Nancy, Ryan’s attorney did bring up the closing time of the bar, phone records were in evidence but the tower records were not available by the time Ryan was arrested. Tower records are only available for 6 months. The jury did see tapes of the interrogations but apparently that didn’t make a difference to them. Chuck’s changing story was not an issue because he was so confident on the stand when he testified.
And Sheila, it’s rarely noted that Shawna Ornt, the female janitor at the Tribune who saw the boys in the parking lot and spoke to one, said there was no blood on the boys. They were not the murderers. They were passersby but evolved into murderers in the public’s mind and when Chuck appeared to confess. The boys probably took off because they were underage and drunk and had just stumbled upon a horrible murder scene, on Halloween. Can you imagine the panic they felt? Who can blame them for running. It’s also possible by the time of the arrests they had graduated college and left Columbia.
Stacy, thanks so much for your response. You are absolutely right regarding the tower records. I had forgotten that quite a bit of time had passed since the time of death and when Ryan was accused.
I very simply believe that Ryan’s defense attorney is the one who is responsible for Ryan being in prison. How can anyone think that he had an adequate defense? I think the reason the jurors did not consider the discrepancies in the timeline, the obviousness of Chuck being fed information during the interrogations, as well as Chuck’s changing story significant because the case was not argued well enough to even give them a chance to.
Why didn’t Ryan’s attorney call the woman janitor to testify? Why wasn’t the janitor that did testify interrogated more harshly on the stand. I took one look at him and could tell that he wasn’t sure by simply looking at his body language.
Also, I don’t think Ryan’s cockiness on the stand helped him any. He never should have been allowed to act that way.
I simply wish, as another commenter did, that Ryan had Casey Anthony’s attorneys and that Casey Anthony had his. Two wrongs would have been made right.
What a horrible tragedy for all of the victims in the case to have to go through. I, hereby, challenge the two young men who walked by the crime scene to come forward now and testify as to what they saw. I doubt that you have forgotten this incident. You could very possibly have some extremely valuable information. Please do the right thing.
As a side note - I think it prudent that all law professors add the study of the contrast between these two cases to their curriculums.
Isn't it just possible that the jury got it right on this one? When I look at Ryan Ferguson I do not see the innocent victim- I see a cold faced liar. While the investigation was flawed, I think the jury's gut instinct told them Chuck was telling the truth, and that Ryan was not. Legally, he may have good grounds to stand on for another trial- but I am not buying that he had nothing to do with Keith Morrison's death. Mr. Ferguson said he know's his son, and that he would never kill somebody, that he "didn't have it in him", but I don't think he really had that close of a relationship with his kids. His daughter was sneaking her 17 year old brother into bars? She said she felt guilty because "it just looks really bad" that he was there that night because of her. She should feel bad because she took sociopathic little brother and his friend out to get wasted and they killed an innocent person- but no, "because it looks bad".
Yeah, I call bull@!$%# on Dateline's bias in this story. I think he did it. Am I really the only one?
Just like what you would expect a jurist to do, based on what evidence would you say he is guilty? The law says you need evidence, not that someone looks like a cold faced liar. (Which I did not see). He is the only one who did not change his story, and you actually believed the one(s) who did? What was the motive? He had a credit card, so why kill a man? Plus there was no proof that money was taken, they only said his keys and watch. Plus the timeline is way off. State your evidence because there just isn't any there.
Ryan is innocent! No doubt about it. Yes to the person posting above me! I do believe you are the only one who believes otherwise, and I can only say, you are completely and utterly incorrect! RYAN FERGUSON IS INNOCENT!!! I Will gladly bet my life on it!!!
Pray for Justice! Pray for Ryan! Write Ryan. Encourage him. Prepare to lavishly provide him with perks and education and everything else when he is released. He will be released, and it will not be long!
I think Ryan is innoncent to, the justice system sucks. Date line had a story that aired oct 8th 2011 where some church men investigated people who were wrongly accused for crimes they did not commit for donations as payment. Thus far they have freed 40 people, I think some one should contact them and have them investigate Ryans case