Missouri stands alone in keeping an innocent man incarcerated after the only witnesses against him have admitted perjury in open court at a habeas hearing. After an exhaustive review of case law across the United States, no case exists in which the only witnesses against the defendant admitted perjury in open court at a habeas hearing. Until April of 2012, there were two alleged eyewitnesses keeping Ryan in prison--Jerry Trump and Charles Erickson. Until April of 2012, Ryan had no chance of walking out of prison because of these two people.
Remarkably, Erickson and Trump took the stand in April of 2012 and admitted they lied at Ryan's trial when they implicated him in Kent Heitholt's murder. Both men subjected themselves to perjury charges by recanting. This has never happened before in an American courtroom in a habeas hearing.
Recanting witnesses may give affidavits admitting perjury but they rarely take the stand and admit perjury. This is the watershed event in Ryan Ferguson's case. There is no case in the United States where the only alleged eyewitnesses recanted in open court, the conviction has been upheld, and the person remains incarcerated.
justiceforryanferguson.com
Ryan is innocent. It is as simple as that. They have just started filming a documentary about his case so that is exciting. There is a letter writing campaign to Governor Jay Nixon supporting his bid for a pardon. Links to the Governor's office, phone numbers, etc can be found under the "about" section of his facebook page "free ryan ferguson". Ryan's family is encouraging everyone to write, call, email, or tweet the Governor's office! FREE RYAN
ReplyDelete