Ryan Ferguson was sentenced to 40 years for murdering Kent Heitholt in 2001. His father is convinced of his innocence, and refuses to give up trying for another trial or an acquittal. He has been working for this doggedly and if your ever in trouble you have to hope you have someone like him in your corner. Read this article and you will have to agree.
Thursday, May 28, 2009 | 2:12 p.m. CDT
BY GEORGE KENNEDY
If I ever get in serious trouble, I’m going to hope I have somebody like Bill Ferguson on my side.
You may recognize that name, though it’s been a while since it has been in the paper. Bill Ferguson is the father of Ryan Ferguson, and Ryan Ferguson is one of the two young men convicted of murdering Kent Heitholt back in 2001.
Bill Ferguson came to see me this week. He’d run across a column I wrote back in February in which I wondered whether anybody was investigating Kenny Hulshof after Kenny’s prosecutorial conduct was strongly criticized by a judge. That was in another murder case, one that ended with the court order freeing a wrongly convicted defendant.
Kenny didn’t prosecute Ryan Ferguson. Kevin Crane did. It’s Judge Crane now, of course. He succeeded on the Circuit Court bench Judge Ellen, who presided over Ryan Ferguson’s trial in October 2005 and later retired.
Mr. Ferguson argues, and thinks he can prove, that his son’s prosecution was also unlawfully flawed. I have no idea whether he’ll be able to do that to a court’s satisfaction, but I have no doubt he’ll keep trying.
“If I don’t push it, nothing is going to happen,” Mr. Ferguson told me. He has been pushing since his son’s arrest in 2004. Along the way, he has learned a lot about the criminal justice system and a lot about apparent flaws in the investigation of the murder. He remains unshaken in his belief in his son’s innocence.
Last month, the Court of Appeals turned down an argument that the jury in the trial was improperly selected. Ryan Ferguson’s latest lawyer said she will appeal that rejection to the state Supreme Court. Bill Ferguson has his hopes pinned more on a different appeal. That one is awaiting a ruling by Circuit Court Judge Jodie Asel.
In July, Judge Asel heard arguments and saw new evidence on the issues of whether then-Prosecuting Attorney Crane disclosed to the defense before trial, as the law requires, evidence that would have favored the defendant (“exculpatory” is the term) and whether the defense attorneys did an adequate job for their client.
Mr. Ferguson thinks the answer in both instances is no. He has spent much of the past four years and upward of $200,000 trying to prove that. He has changed lawyers twice. He has become his own investigator.
After Mr. Ferguson called me, I went back and reread much of the coverage of the murder and the trial. I was reminded what a strange case it was.
You may recall that Kent Heitholt, the sports editor at the Columbia Daily Tribune, was beaten and strangled to death in the parking lot of the paper after he left work about 2 a.m. on Nov. 1, 2001. For more than two years, investigators were stumped. Then Chuck Erickson, a Rock Bridge High School classmate of Ryan Ferguson, began telling friends that he’d dreamed he might have been involved. That dream turned into a nightmare for the Fergusons, as repeated police interrogations resulted in an eventual confession by Erickson that he and Ryan Ferguson had committed murder.
There never was any physical evidence linking either defendant to the crime, no fingerprint or DNA matches. No murder weapon was found. The only eye witnesses were two janitors who saw two men near Heitholt’s car. One of them later told Crane (and testified at the hearingin July) that the men she saw were not the defendants. The other, an ex-con, first said he couldn’t recognize them because of bad lighting but in the trial pointed to Ryan Ferguson.
Chuck Erickson wound up being sentenced to 25 years in prison. Ryan Ferguson is serving 40 years.
If you go to the Web site Bill Ferguson maintains, FreeRyanFerguson.com, you’ll find a collection of videos and statements that make his case. You can see how Chuck Erickson’s story changed under police questioning. You can hear one janitor say Crane tried to intimidate her into identifying the defendants and that neither he nor the defense attorneys asked her at trial whether she saw them. There’s a lot more.
To me, it’s disturbing material. To Bill Ferguson, it should be enough to free his son. He has learned enough, however, not to be too hopeful. He puts the odds that Judge Asel will order a new trial at about 50/50.
If these appeals fail, there’ll be more. If all else fails, there’s the Innocence Project, which takes on the cases of the wrongfully convicted.
Meanwhile, Bill and Leslie Ferguson visit their son every week in the maximum security prison near Jefferson City. Now 24 and a prisoner for five years, Ryan is doing well, his father says.
When I told Mr. Ferguson I was impressed by his efforts, he shrugged.
“What else could I do?”
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Abortion Doc Assassinated
Sunday, May 31, 2009
Abortion Doc Assassinated
The news of Abortion Doctor George Tiller being shot while at church will stun some, and cause others to say he deserved it. The Doctor has been the center of a lot of news stories for years.
I'm old enough to remember President Kennedy, his brother, and Dr. Martin Luther King, being shot. It was a very sad time in America when these Assassinations took place. Even though we were involved in another war, where I served, at that time, I've never been an advocate of violence to solve a difference of opinion. I just hope the US isn't headed for another period of using assassination to remove ones opponents. Assassins should realize that all they do is make martyrs of the people they assassinate. This usually accelerates the victims position, making more people side with their views.
I'm old enough to remember President Kennedy, his brother, and Dr. Martin Luther King, being shot. It was a very sad time in America when these Assassinations took place. Even though we were involved in another war, where I served, at that time, I've never been an advocate of violence to solve a difference of opinion. I just hope the US isn't headed for another period of using assassination to remove ones opponents. Assassins should realize that all they do is make martyrs of the people they assassinate. This usually accelerates the victims position, making more people side with their views.
Suspect arrested in connection with slaying of abortion provider George Tiller
A body believed to the that of Dr. George Tiller is removed from Reformation Luthern Chuch on Sunday. A gunman shot the abortion provider dead in the lobby of the Church.
Authorities have yet to release more information about the arrest. Wichita police have scheduled a 4 p.m. news conference to discuss the case.
Tiller, 67, was shot just after 10 a.m. in the lobby of Reformation Lutheran Church at 7601 E. 13th, where he was a member of the congregation. Witnesses, a city official and a police source confirmed Tiller was the victim.
Police had said they were looking for white male who was driving a 1990s powder blue Ford Taurus with Kansas license plate 225 BAB. The vehicle is registered to an owner in Merriam, which is in the Kansas City area.
Wichita police Capt. Brent Allred said that several law enforcement agencies -- including the FBI and the KBI -- have been called in to help with the case.
"This is going to be a larger search than probably maybe just Wichita that we're looking for this individual," Allred said. "So we've got the resources coming in to help us with this investigation."
Allred said that no one else was injured in the shooting. He would not say how many shots were fired. He said it's unclear whether the shooter exchanged any words with the victim.
"We've got several people going downtown," Allred said. "This is going to be an investigation that is going to take a little while to get some of that information out."
Allred said the 10 a.m. church service had already begun at the time of the shooting.
Homicide detectives and Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston arrived at the church after the shooting.
Members of the congregation who were inside the sanctuary at the time of the shooting were kept inside by police, and those arriving were ushered into the parking lot immediately after the shooting. Witnesses later were transported downtown for interviews and other members of the congregation were slowly released from inside the sanctuary.
By 12:30 p.m., what appeared to be a body was taken away in an SUV with a patrol car behind it.
At about 12:40, a police dog was taken to check out a black SUV. An investigator wrote down the tag number on the vehicle.
Tiller has long been a focal point of protest by abortion opponents because his clinic, Women's Health Care Services at 5107 E. Kellogg, is one of the few in the country where late-term abortions are performed.
Mark Mitchell, who lives near where the shooting occurred, said he knew Tiller attended the church because of the periodic protests there and media coverage.
He said the protests would sometimes be as large as two dozen people. The last protest he can remember there was in the fall.
"We are shocked at this morning's disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down," anti-abortion group Operation Rescue said in a statement on its Web site. "Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller's family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ."
Protesters blockaded Tiller's clinic during Operation Rescue's "Summer of Mercy" protests during the summer of 1991, and Tiller was shot by Rachelle Shannon at his clinic in 1993. Tiller was wounded in both arms, and Shannon remains in prison for the shooting.
The clinic was bombed in June 1986, and was severely vandalized earlier this month. According to the Associated Press, his lawyer said wires to security cameras and outdoor lights were cut and that the vandals also cut through the roof and plugged the buildings' downspouts. Rain poured through the roof and caused thousands of dollars of damage in the clinic. Tiller reportedly asked the FBI to investigate the incident.
No arrests were made in the 1986 bombing.
Sgt. Bart Brunscheen of the Wichita Police Department said there has been no activitiy today at Tiller's clinic, although security crews were being brought in to make sure the building was secure. Officials also were going to check the clinic's security cameras to see whether there was any activity over night.
Tiller and his clinic have faced continuous threats and lawsuits. A Wichita jury ruled in March that he was not guilty of illegal abortion on 19 criminal charges he faced for allegedly violating a state law requiring an "independent" second physician's concurring opinion before performing later term abortions. Immediately following the ruling in this criminal case, the Kansas State Board of Healing Arts made public a similar complaint against Tiller that was originally filed in December 2008.
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