Ryan Ferguson: Inside his first day as a free man — Transcript

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1. 0:00and Ryan Ferguson and his father, Bill,
2. 0:01are with us now from Columbia, Missouri
3. 0:04for their first sitdown interview since
4. 0:05being released. Good morning. Good
5. 0:07morning. I can imagine you never thought
6. 0:10you might see this day or you always
7. 0:11believed you would, but now that it has
8. 0:14arrived, tell us your emotions. My
9. 0:17emotions personally, uh, I don't think
10. 0:19they've caught up to me yet. It's it's
11. 0:22amazing. Um, you know, it's quite early
12. 0:24in the morning. I haven't really had the
13. 0:26opportunity to experience the day yet,
14. 0:28but I know as it unfolds. Uh there will
15. 0:31be new adventures and and it'll be
16. 0:33incredible. So, uh definitely looking
17. 0:34forward to getting into the day. You
18. 0:36have said that to get arrested and get
19. 0:38charged for a crime you didn't commit is
20. 0:39incredibly easy and you use your life
21. 0:42very fast. But to get out of prison, it
22. 0:45takes an army. Tell me about that. It
23. 0:48does. Well, it does take an army and
24. 0:51fortunately we had the Marines and that
25. 0:54was in the form of Kathleen Zilmer and
26. 0:56uh that made all the difference in the
27. 0:58world.
28. 0:59Kathleen saved the day for our family.
29. 1:02Absolutely. But Ryan, what about your
30. 1:04parents? I mean, you you gave a shout
31. 1:07out to your parents who have stood by
32. 1:08you this entire time or nearly a decade.
33. 1:12It no doubt begins and ends with my my
34. 1:15parents. Uh you know, they've been there
35. 1:17since day one. They believed in me.
36. 1:20They've taken the time to look at all
37. 1:21the facts and they have been fighting
38. 1:24non-stop. And that includes my sister as
39. 1:25well. My whole family, they have been
40. 1:27incredible. And without them, I know
41. 1:30that, you know, it would have been very
42. 1:32difficult for me to have hope and have
43. 1:35faith in in the process and to be there
44. 1:38when Kathleen came along to be able to
45. 1:40help us. How do you restrain what must
46. 1:42be a sense of of deep injustice, a sense
47. 1:45of rage, even the hostility you should
48. 1:49feel or might feel to Mr. Ericson
49. 1:52uh who helped put you there? You know,
50. 1:55uh Mr. Ericson was used and uh that's
51. 1:59pure and simple. I think it's it's easy
52. 2:01to see that by looking at the facts and
53. 2:04you know, there needs to be
54. 2:05accountability for the way he was used.
55. 2:08And there's multiple cases where other
56. 2:09individuals have been, you know, kind of
57. 2:13pushed into false confessions. So,
58. 2:15that's a whole another subject. It would
59. 2:17take quite a while to delve into that
60. 2:19completely, but uh, you know, I feel
61. 2:21sorry for that individual. Uh, hopefully
62. 2:24he'll get justice one day. So, what are
63. 2:26the things you think you might want to
64. 2:27do now? The things that I might want to
65. 2:29do, I need to get close. Uh, it's really
66. 2:34just the basic things, the fundamentals,
67. 2:36the things people overlook on a daily
68. 2:38basis. So, just I need to build my life
69. 2:40back. I want to ask Ryan and Bill, did
70. 2:43you ever ever expect um this to happen
71. 2:47this quickly? I mean, most people
72. 2:48thought it was going to take months.
73. 2:50Absolutely. Well, we're quite surprised.
74. 2:52Actually, we thought it would more
75. 2:54likely happen today uh if it were going
76. 2:56to happen. It wasn't a question if it
77. 2:58was going to happen. It was a question
78. 2:59of when it was going to happen. So, uh,
79. 3:02yeah, we're surprised and, uh, we're
80. 3:05we're so, uh, so excited. Absolutely.
81. 3:07And Bill, what about Aaron Morardi, you
82. 3:09know, who has been on this case from the
83. 3:11beginning in 48 hours. Well, they just
84. 3:13did an excellent excellent job. They
85. 3:15were the leaders. Those are the ones
86. 3:16that brought the attention to this case
87. 3:19back in 2006. They started filming
88. 3:22during the trial, 2005, and they just
89. 3:24stayed with it all the way through. And,
90. 3:26uh, that just means so much to us. That
91. 3:28that's that was tremendous. tremendous
92. 3:31uh congratulations uh to you and your
93. 3:33family and your father and your attorney
94. 3:35who fought so hard to make this happen
95. 3:37and also to our own Aaron Marardi whose
96. 3:40coverage for 48 hours uh led I think to
97. 3:43the attorney who helped do so much for
98. 3:45them to get involved in the case. I
99. 3:47think the focus on this case
100. 3:49particularly now I think may have helped
101. 3:51contribute to the fact they decide not
102. 3:52to retry him. I they didn't drag it out
103. 3:54any longer. I think there was so much
104. 3:56focus on this case. Great work. Thank
105. 3:59you. Thank you again, Ron and Bill
106. 4:01Ferguson. Thank you.