Ryan W. Ferguson (born October 19, 1984) is an American man who spent nearly 10 years in prison after being wrongfully convicted of a 2001 murder in his hometown of Columbia, Missouri. At the time of the murder, Ferguson was a 17-year-old high-school student.
Kent Heitholt was found beaten and strangled shortly after 2 a.m. on November 1, 2001 in the parking lot of the Columbia Daily Tribune, where he worked as a sports editor. Heitholt's murder went unsolved for two years until police received a tip about a man named Charles Erickson who had spent that evening partying with Ferguson. Erickson could not remember the evening of the murder and was concerned that he may have been involved in it. Despite failing to recall having killed Heitholt, Erickson eventually confessed and implicated Ferguson in the crime as well. Ferguson was convicted in the fall of 2005 on the basis of Erickson's testimony as well as that of a building employee.
Both witnesses later recanted their testimony, claiming that police and prosecuting attorney Kevin Crane, now a circuit court judge, had coerced them to lie. The 2005 conviction was vacated on November 5, 2013 by the Western District of the Missouri Court of Appeals, and Ferguson was released on the evening of November 12 after spending nearly a decade in prison. He won $11 million in a civil suit against Missouri police.
The case has been featured on 48 Hours, Dateline and in numerous other newspapers and media outlets.
Personal life[]
Soon after he was arrested, Ferguson began devoting his time to fitness and health and became a certified personal trainer. "I know you're innocent, but while you're in there, I can't protect you," his father told him four days after his arrest in 2004, "You have to do everything you can to make yourself stronger, faster, and smarter to survive." Ferguson began exercising and lifting weights while in prison.
In April 2016, it was announced that Ferguson would host an MTV series entitled Unlocking the Truth, a serialized documentary following other cases of possible wrongful conviction.
Ferguson appeared on The Amazing Race 33 with his friend Dusty Harris.