Under the US Supreme Court: Locking away the innocent

The case of Ryan Ferguson, the Missouri man freed after spending 10 years behind bars for a murder he says he didn't commit, shows the nation's justice system, one of the fairest in the world, occasionally convicts the innocent, puts them in prison and throws away the key. Does the U.S. Supreme Court give a damn? Ferguson improbably was convicted on the "repressed memories" of a friend for the 2001 killing of Columbia (Mo.) Daily Tribune Sports editor Kent Heitholt in the newspaper parking lot as Heitholt was leaving work early in the morning. The friend recanted at trial and another witness putting Ferguson at the scene also recanted. He was not connected to fingerprints, bloody footprints and hair found at the crime scene. Ferguson, now 29, was sentenced to 40 years. He was finally freed last week. The friend, whose "repressed memories" of participating in the crime with Ferguson surfaced in dreams years after the killing, remains in prison. A Missouri appeals court said Ferguson "has established the gateway of cause and prejudice, permitting review of his procedurally defaulted claim that the state violated [the U.S. Supreme Court's 1963 ruling in] Brady vs. Maryland ... by withholding material, favorable evidence of an interview with Barbara Trump, the wife of Jerry Trump, one of the state's key witnesses at trial. "The undisclosed evidence was favorable because it impeached Jerry Trump's explanation for his ability to identify Ferguson," the appeals court said. "The undisclosed evidence was material because of the importance of Jerry Trump's eyewitness identification to the state's ability to convict Ferguson, because the evidence would have permitted Ferguson to discover other evidence that could have impacted the admissibility or the credibility of Jerry Trump's testimony, and because of the cumulative effect of the non-disclosure when considered with other information the state did not disclose. "The undisclosed evidence renders Ferguson's verdict not worthy of confidence."