opens up about his epic fight for freedom for our series "crime & punishment" 2-year-old ryan fergusony, ryan. >> hi. >> reporter: for a brutal murder he and now many others insist he didn't commit. >> it is hard to have much hope at this point in the justice system based on what they have done. >> reporter: today he believes he could be days away from the phone call that could finally free him. >> these judges don't decide to do what i, i think is obvious, what i think is the right thing. you know i might not ever have a chance to get my life back again. >> reporter: as we will find out there is not a shred of physical evidence linking him to the crime and as of last year, not a single witness to implicate him. his incredible saga started nine years ago. >> i was getting an education. i was moving forward in life. and there was nothing but -- open road. >> reporter: a former eagle scout, a popular kid. an extremely close with his family growing up in columbia, missouri. >> this is one of the times when he was leaving. giving bill a hug there. even when he got into his teenage years, h

none of it matched ryan ferguson. >> we find ryan ferguson, guilty of murder. >> reporter: and 5 years a 25-year sentence, erickson suddenly reached out to ryan, to admit he lied. >> things happened much differently than i had previously stated. i regret now that i put an innocent man through that. he didn't deserve it. >> reporter: ryan got a new hearing in april 2012, where erickson testified. >> you lied to your own mother? >> i lied to everybody. >> reporter: and then, the prosecution's second and only other eyewitness, a convicted sex offender, admitted that he, too, had lied at the trial. >> i felt very intimidated because the only thing i wanted to do at that point was to do the right thing. >> reporter: but judge daniel green didn't believe erickson's most recent account. and found there wasn't enough reliable new evidence to overturn the conviction. >> it's scary knowing they're not looking for the truth. they're looking for a conviction. i just maintain positivity. and hope that one day i wake up and i get a good phone call. >> reporter: and that call could come any day now.

david mattingley is out front. >> reporter: ryan ferguson has been locked up for ten years for a murder he said he couldn't have committed. as he sits down to talk to me behind bars in a missouri prison, he can't hide his optimism. >> optimism, hope, a little anxiety. >> there is a lot on the line for you. >> my whole life. he is days or maybe hours from possibly a new trial and possibly freedom. he was convicted in 2005 of killing columbia tribune editor, thanks to the testimony of two men who have since admitted that they lied. >> they hide and you're till in prison. >> i wish i could explain it. you cannot use logic. the moment you use lodgic is the moment you drive yourself yea's ever crazy. >> the biggest problem is the credibility of accused him in the first place. charles was describe as a troubled young man who support sars was manipulated into confessing something he only imagined. >> i don't know. i can be completely making assumptions. >> he was also convicted. >> he had no memory of anything happening. his entire recollection was based off police reports that he made a lot o