Lawyer Files $100M Lawsuit For Innocent Man Who Spent Nearly 10 Years In Prison

A lawyer for a man who was wrongly convicted in 2005 for murdering a journalist filed a $100 million lawsuit on Monday on the client's behalf, CBS News reported.

Kathleen Zellner, who represents Ryan Ferguson, said an incomplete police investigation along with falsified evidence contributed to Ferguson being tried and convicted for the murder of Columbia Daily Tribune sports editor Kent Heitholt.

Heitholt died in the early morning hours of Nov. 1, 2001 in the newspaper's parking lot. He had been beaten and strangled, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.

A friend of Ferguson, Chuck Erickson, confessed that he and Ferguson killed Heitholt together, which led to Ferguson's arrest in 2004, CBS News reported.

But Erickson later took back his confession, CBS News reported. Others who said they witnessed Ferguson at the scene of the murder also recanted. The lawsuit claims that police used "coercive tactics" when they interviewed Ferguson's friends, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.

"Clearly, the goal of making an arrest for the Heitholt murder was used to justify obtaining Ryan's conviction by any means, including concealing and fabricating evidence," the lawsuit said according to the newspaper.

Ferguson, who is now 29, spent nearly a decade in prison until a judge overturned his conviction in November 2013.

The 50-page lawsuit, filed in a U.S. District Court in Missouri, also argues that bloody footprints, fingerprints and hair found at the crime scene cannot be linked to Ferguson.

Zellner is seeking $75 million in damages and $25 million in compensatory damages, according to the Columbia Daily Tribune.

The lawsuit also calls for a trial against 13 named defendants on charges including conspiracy to deprive constitutional rights, false arrest and defamation. The named defendants include the Columbia Police Department, Boone County and the City of Columbia, the newspaper reported.

Ferguson, who maintained his innocence throughout his incarceration, gave an interview with CBS's "48 Hours" when he was released.

"I know what is to be a teenager, I don't know what it is to be an adult in the real world, as nearly a 30-year-old," Ferguson told "48 Hours."

Erickson is currently serving a 25-year sentence at a prison in Missouri for Heitholt's murder. His attorney is preparing to appeal his case, the Columbia Daily Tribune reported.

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