Innocent Until Proven Guilty Until Proven Innocent: Ryan Ferguson’s Story

By William Sharon on November 22, 2013

Jury trials frequently breed controversy. It’s almost as though the masterminds behind the criminal justice system got together and decided to make a reality show in which they would randomly select twelve “average citizens” and force them to make a major decision in the face of relentless publicity. Oh, and the kicker, with two guys fighting tooth and nail to twist the facts and to convince them to believe one truth, and one lie.

Photo by srqpix on flickr.com

That being the case, jury trials are surprisingly successful. For the most part, they get it right. But unlike a reality show, when jurors fail it isn’t them who get sent home with a shortened television stint and a pocket void of $50,000. Instead, the people who get punished are guys like Ryan Ferguson, a 28-year-old man who was convicted of the murder of a Columbia, Missouri newspaper editor named Kent Heitholt. Ferguson was not sentenced to a plane-ride home, however, he was given 40 years in prison. After ten of those years passed, it was discovered that he had been falsely accused.

Though I am tempted to make this piece yet another case against capital punishment (if Ferguson had been given the death penalty, two innocent people would have been killed, one by a ritualistic and power-hungry entity, the other by the guy who actually killed Kent Heitholt), I will refrain from berating the court for mistakes that, in this instance, it did not make.

But what does the miscarriage of justice that convicted Ryan Ferguson indicate about the system at large? First of all, it reveals one of many faults to which a jury can succumb.

Let’s backtrack a little; when the case came before the court ten years ago, there was no physical evidence linking Ryan Ferguson to the murder of Kent Heitholt. There was the testimony of two witnesses, Charles Erickson, a childhood friend of Ferguson’s who claimed to be his accomplice, and a Janitor who had allegedly seen Ferguson at the scene of the crime with the body.

After the verdict was announced, one juror told reporters that “you didn’t need like, the hair or anything like that, I don’t think because he’s– you got witness right there. You know what I’m saying?”

Let that sink in. Any expert, or anyone who’s ever studied the legal system for that matter, could tell you that eyewitness testimony is a fickle institution. Countless studies point to the fact that people struggle to remember important details accurately, even if they would “swear on their mother’s grave that that’s the guy.” Moreover, when influenced by a third party (a lawyer, perhaps) they are likely not only to mistakenly identify a person who wasn’t actually the criminal, but to identify someone as having been somewhere, when, in fact, they had never actually seen that person in their life.

But, hey, if someone asked you to recall something, and you were certain you remembered it accurately, you’d be hard-pressed to change your opinion too. That’s exactly what happened to Ryan Ferguson. He was found guilty because people could not imagine that they would ever mistakenly misidentify a murderer, and thus, that a witness who identified a “murderer” in court, through a dramatic and definitive finger-point no less, could not be in the wrong.

Ultimately however, both witnesses recanted their statements and indicated that their testimony had, in fact, been false. While our justice system may be advanced and nearly airtight, this is certainly an indication that it has flaws. It is a sad day when the phrase “innocent until proven guilty until proven innocent” is applicable. After all, doesn’t “proven” suggest a need for, well, proof? Thankfully on November 12th 2013 Ryan Ferguson was released from prison, likely glad that he missed only his twenties, and was not robbed of his entire life.

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