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The Case of Brian Ferguson
📻 Episode #31
🎙️ Hosted by Jason Flom
📅 Aug 07, 2017
About This Episode
Brian Ferguson was a 20-year-old college student in West Virginia when he was accused in 2002 of fatally shooting a fellow classmate. Brian was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole, and he remained in prison until a committed team of pro bono lawyers won his release and exoneration for the crime…
The Case
Brian Ferguson was a 20-year-old college student in West Virginia when he was accused in 2002 of fatally shooting a fellow classmate. Brian was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life without parole, and he remained in prison until a committed team of pro bono lawyers won his release and exoneration for the crime in 2013. After his release, Brian returned to Washington, D.C. and soon discovered a gap in services for people reentering society after incarceration. In response to these challenges, he developed Start Line, which he describes as a kind of Yelp for returning citizens. Brian Ferguson enrolled at Georgetown University after meeting government professor Marc Howard, who launched the university’s Prisons and Justice Initiative, which addresses pressing policy and moral issues surrounding prison reform and mass incarceration through programs and events. Professor Howard joins Brian in this episode.
https://www.wrongfulconvictionpodcast.com/with-jason-flom
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In Their Own Words — transcript excerpts
Short excerpts from the episode's official published transcript, with timestamps — listen from these moments, or read the full transcript via the podcast's own platforms.
00:05:56“Speaker 2: don't go to her. We had maybe a three minute Speaker 2: argument and then that was it. That was literally it. Speaker 2: And that was in my first year of college. And Speaker 2: I say this in my first year of college because Speaker 2: that's important timeline wise, because this gentleman ended up getting”
00:23:45“Speaker 6: totally twisted cycle. Speaker 4: Was there anything positive at all? Speaker 2: Yeah, you know there there are, ironically a lot of Speaker 2: different positive moments. Humans are a resilient kind of species, Speaker 2: and especially if you're a strong person. And I've seen Speaker 2: the system break a lot of people and so I”
00:40:51“Speaker 2: they come home from prison, whether they did two years Speaker 2: or twenty years. Speaker 1: And I didn't necessarily have to deal with all that. Speaker 2: I still had tremendous hurdles, but the fact is that Speaker 2: I had the supports and people help me through my situation,”
Listen to the Episode
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Also on the podcast: #37 Ryan Ferguson · #252 Allan Woodhouse and Brian Anderson · #262 Brian Parnell