#037 Jason Flom with Ryan Ferguson

Wrongful Conviction

Lava for Good Podcasts

True Crime

4.4 • 5.8K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2017

⏱️ 60 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Ryan Ferguson was a 17-year-old high school student when Kent Heitholt, a sportswriter for the Columbia Daily Tribune, was found beaten and strangled in Missouri. Heitholt's murder went unsolved for two years until police received a tip that a man named Charles Erickson could not remember the evening of the murder and had told a friend that he thought he may have been involved. Erickson, who had spent that fateful evening partying with Ryan Ferguson, was interrogated by police and despite initially seeming to have no memory of the night of the murder, eventually confessed and implicated Ryan as well. Police offered Erickson a plea deal in exchange for testimony against Ryan at his trial in 2005. Despite the lack of any physical evidence tying Ryan Ferguson to the crime, he was convicted of second-degree murder and robbery and sentenced to 40 years in prison.

Wrongful Conviction is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

We have worked hard to ensure that all facts reported in this show are accurate. The views and opinions expressed by the individuals featured in this show are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of Lava for Good.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I fell into the hands of corrupt detective.
0:07.2	I was not even enough to believe that I would be able to just present all of my proof of
0:12.0	actual innocence that they would investigate adequately and so that I wouldn't be going
0:15.7	to prison because I was a good person, I hadn't anything wrong.
0:19.4	In the back of my, you say, well, when we go to a hearing, we go to court, the truth
0:24.0	will come out.
0:25.0	The prosecution from day one knew I was innocent and left forced testimony to go
0:29.6	uncorrected from the lower courts all the way up to United States Supreme Court.
0:36.2	You have someone with a badge with ultimate and really in that moment unchecked authority.
0:44.7	Don't presume that people are guilty when you see them on TV because it may just be
0:49.6	a dirty D.A. that is trying to rise upward.
0:55.8	This is wrongful conviction.
1:09.4	Today's news can feel like uncharted waters, but more often than you think we're not the first
1:14.7	generation to confront what we're dealing with today.
1:17.5	We're just the first generation to make a podcast about it.
1:20.1	I'm Rachel Maddo.
1:21.2	I'm Isaac Davie Eronson.
1:22.6	Each week we'll bring you a story from history.
1:24.8	That helps with something in the headlines today.
1:40.2	Get ready for season four of The Restless Ones, an original podcast presented by T-Mobile
1:45.5	for Business and I Heart Radio. Join me as I sit down for in-depth discussions with the people
1:50.7	at the intersection of technology and business. You'll learn how each of these leaders is building
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Lava for Good Podcasts, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Lava for Good Podcasts and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.