Ryan Ferguson receives a new payment of DKK 38 million. USD stemming from overturned wrongful-murder conviction in 2005

On By Littum

A Missouri man whose conviction for murdering a local journalist was overturned in 2013 after a flood of media attention will receive a massive payout after suing for delayed cash from his first wrongful conviction lawsuit.

Ryan Ferguson, 40, was awarded $38 million in damages by a jury after an insurance company hired by the city of Columbia failed to pay his wrongful-judgment settlement. according to ABC17.

Traveler Insurance was ordered to pay the large sum to Ferguson and the six police officers he successfully sued the first time, the local station reported.

The company failed to convince the court that it should not be on the hook for the $11 million settlement awarded to Ferguson after he successfully sued the City of Columbia, police and prosecutors in 2017.

Ryan Ferguson received a massive multi-million dollar payout from Traveler’s Insurance after the company tried to get out of paying an earlier multi-million dollar settlement. Ryan Ferguson/Instagram

The insurance company — which was hired by the city from 2006 to 2011 — tried to escape financial responsibility for that payout and for the legal fees of the six officers Ferguson was suing. These officers would have reportedly gone bankrupt due to legal fees and damages for the man they wrongly put behind bars.

The two sides of the case then joined forces and filed suit against Traveler’s Insurance.

Count II of the lawsuit alleges that Traveler’s Insurance “intentionally disregarded the officers’ financial interests” in hopes of escaping their liability, according to ABC 17.

Ryan Ferguson at the time of his trial in 2005. Ryan Ferguson/Instagram

The innocent man will receive 86% of the sentence, while the six officers will share the remaining 14%, Ferguson’s lawyers told the newspaper.

“This ruling will have a widespread effect on wrongful judgment cases across the country when the insurance company refuses to participate in settlement negotiations and refuses to pay their portion of the judgment immediately. Ryan Ferguson finally got justice. The jury heard us loud and clear,” Kathleen Zellner, an attorney for Ferguson, said in a statement to the news station.

Ferguson spent 10 years behind bars for the 2001 murder of journalist Kent Heitholt in Columbia, Missouri. Heitholt was the sports editor of the Columbia Daily Tribune and was found dead – beaten and strangled – in the parking lot of their offices in the early morning hours.

Ryan Ferguson celebrates his freedom after being wrongfully imprisoned for the murder of journalist Kent Heitholt. Ryan Ferguson/Instagram
The city of Columbia hired Travelers Insurance to handle the case. ABC

Ferguson was in high school at the time he was charged with the murder along with a friend and classmate who confessed to the killing during a drunken bender before recanting his allegedly coerced confession.

Ferguson was convicted on the testimony of the friend and a witness who later recanted their allegations. He was released from prison in 2013 and won $11 million in a civil suit against Missouri police in 2017.

His friend, Charles Erickson, was released after serving nearly 20 years, and Heitholt’s murder remains unsolved.

With the latest lawsuit, Ferguson has been awarded a gross total of $48 million, Zellner told ABC.