Ryan Ferguson enjoys first day of freedom — Transcript

Full transcript

1. 0:00we have an update on a story that 48
2. 0:02Hours correspondent Aaron morard has
3. 0:04been following a long time about a man
4. 0:07named Ryan Ferguson he spent nearly a
5. 0:10decade in a Missouri prison for a murder
6. 0:12that he's always insisted he did not
7. 0:14commit well tonight Ferguson now 29
8. 0:18years old is a free man thanks in no
9. 0:21small part to Aaron's Relentless
10. 0:23investigation of this case and Aaron is
11. 0:26with us tonight Aaron well Scott his
12. 0:28release actually came as a surprise
13. 0:30a special prosecutor in the case was
14. 0:32just appointed last Friday so no one
15. 0:35expected that just 4 days later it would
16. 0:38all be over first thing I did was just
17. 0:41hug my parents and uh kiss my girlfriend
18. 0:44of course he's been out of prison for
19. 0:46just 24 hours but Ryan Ferguson is
20. 0:49already savoring the taste of his
21. 0:51Newfound
22. 0:53Freedom before supporters in the Press
23. 0:56last night he spoke about the time and
24. 0:58effort it took to get to this day to get
25. 1:01arrested and to get charged for a crime
26. 1:03you didn't commit it's incredibly easy
27. 1:05but to get out of prison it
28. 1:08takes an army Ferguson's release
29. 1:11followed a nearly decade long campaign
30. 1:13led by his father Bill to clear his
31. 1:16son's name I've driven 9,000 miles in 21
32. 1:20days a Facebook page designed to draw
33. 1:23attention to the case has attracted
34. 1:25supporters from all over the world it's
35. 1:28been amazing seeing the support guilty
36. 1:30of murder in the second degree Ferguson
37. 1:32was convicted in 2005 of the murder of
38. 1:35Kent heid hold a Columbia Missouri
39. 1:37newspaper sports editor there was plenty
40. 1:40of physical evidence found at the scene
41. 1:43but none of it matched Ferguson there
42. 1:45were two witnesses against him a high
43. 1:48school friend who claimed he helped
44. 1:50Ferguson commit the late night robbery
45. 1:52and murder the other a janitor who said
46. 1:55he saw Ferguson at the crime scene both
47. 1:58men later caned and said they lied at
48. 2:01his trial still despite the lack of
49. 2:05evidence Ferguson's attorney Kleen zner
50. 2:08says he was running out of appeals we
51. 2:11were at the last stage the very last
52. 2:13stage and if you cannot get the
53. 2:15conviction vacated at that stage you're
54. 2:18at the end of the road last week a
55. 2:20Missouri appell court found that
56. 2:22prosecutors had concealed evidence from
57. 2:24Ferguson's defense denying him a fair
58. 2:26trial his conviction was thrown out and
59. 2:30late yesterday the Missouri attorney
60. 2:32general announced he would not retry him
61. 2:35it's better than I would think winning
62. 2:36the Super Bowl you know we saved the
63. 2:40life the attorney general actually
64. 2:42stated that he would not retry Ferguson
65. 2:44at this time which leaves open the
66. 2:46possibility that he could bring charges
67. 2:48later but the evidence that exists today
68. 2:51points to individuals other than
69. 2:52Ferguson Erin you became interested in
70. 2:55this eight years ago why did you what
71. 2:58why did this catch your attention we had
72. 3:00actually seen the police video of the
73. 3:01main accuser and at that time this young
74. 3:04man Charles Ericson seemed to know few
75. 3:06details of any of the crime but then at
76. 3:09the trial he became the star witness and
77. 3:11that was a troubling discrepancy eron
78. 3:14thanks very much