A Missouri man whose murder conviction of a local journalist was overturned in 2013 after a flood of media attention will receive a massive payout after suing for overdue 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 out his wrongful conviction settlement, according to ABC17.
Travelers Insurance was ordered to pay out the hefty 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.
The insurance company — which was hired by the city from 2006 to 2011 — tried to skirt financial responsibility for that payout and for the legal fees of the six officers that Ferguson was in litigation against. Those officers would have reportedly gone bankrupt from legal fees and damages owed to the man they incorrectly put behind bars.
The two sides of the case then joined forces and filed suit against Traveler’s Insurance.
Count II of the lawsuit claims Traveler’s Insurance “intentionally disregarded the financial interest of the officers” in the hopes of escaping their obligation, according to ABC 17.
The innocent man will receive 86% of the verdict while the six officers will split the remaining 14%, Ferguson’s lawyers told the outlet.
“This verdict will have a widespread effect on wrongful conviction cases across the country when the insurer refuses to participate in the settlement negotiations and refuses to pay their share of the verdict immediately. Justice was finally served for Ryan Ferguson. 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.
Ferguson was in high school at the time he was accused of the murder alongside 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 claims. He was released from prison in 2013 and won $11 million in a civil suit against the Missouri police in 2017.
His friend, Charles Erickson, was released after serving nearly 20 years and Heitholt’s murder remains unsolved.
With the newest lawsuit, Ferguson has been awarded a rough total of $48 million dollars, Zellner told ABC.