When Ryan Ferguson was convicted of brutally murdering a Missouri newspaper editor in 2005, two supposed witnesses lied under oath. The DNA from the murder scene didn't match Ferguson's, but the fictitious testimony persuaded a jury to unanimously convict him.
Ferguson spent virtually all of his twenties in prison, maintaining his innocence the entire time, until being released last month at age 29. Meanwhile, five states away — as Ferguson sat confined in a cell, wrongly convicted of a heinous crime — Mike Rognlien lived a young professional's dream, residing in San Francisco and taking a human resources job at Facebook in 2011.
Neither Ferguson nor Rognlien knew who the other was back then — nor the incredible way in which their respective paths would eventually intersect.
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"As you can see, really, to get arrested and charged for a crime you didn't commit, it is incredibly easy and you can lose your life very fast, but to get out it takes an army," Ferguson told reporters the day of his release.
While lawyers worked behind the scenes to free Ferguson and the two supposed witnesses who convinced jurors to send him to maximum security prison recanted their testimony, a different sort of army rallied behind him in the public sphere.
Last December, after seeing a TV report on Ferguson's case, Rognlien was moved to help.
"I lose my shit if I'm stuck in traffic for an hour, so I can't imagine being in jail for nine years for something I didn't do and still remaining poised and articulate," Rognlien tells Mashable. "It's just so unbelievable that this could happen to someone — and yet it's the kind of thing that could happen to anyone."
Ferguson was initially convicted after a high school friend named Chuck Erickson said Ferguson suggested they rob someone to get money to buy alcohol, according to the Associated Press. Erickson said he hit the newspaper editor with a piece of metal before Ferguson used a belt to strangle him. A janitor testified that he had seen both Ferguson and Erickson in the newspaper parking lot the night the editor was killed, although no physical evidence connected either Erickson or Ferguson to the scene. Years later, however, both Erickson and the janitor recanted their testimonies. In November, an appeals court overturned his conviction and Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster said he would not retry Ferguson.
After watching the TV report on Ferguson's story, Rognlien joined one of several Facebook groups set up by Ferguson supporters, offering to assist with his expertise about the platform. He and Richard Drew, a TV producer who was similarly moved after working on a Dateline piece about Ferguson, set up one central support page called Free Ryan Ferguson last December.
They changed the name to Freed Ryan Ferguson after his Nov. 12 release and the page now has more than 94,000 Likes. Supporters shared messages of encouragement from around the world while he was incarcerated and more recently have left thousands of positive comments on photos of Ferguson enjoying his newfound freedom.
But as Ferguson's release began to seem imminent, another issue arose. Love and encouragement from thousands of online fans wouldn't be enough. After missing out on nearly his entire adult life, Ferguson (who wasn't available to be interviewed for this article) could use some material support as well.
So Rognlien and Drew set up a crowdfunding campaign via the site Fundly.com. In one month, nearly 1,700 donors have raised a total of more than $73,000 for Ferguson. The campaign was set to end Thursday, but Rognlien says he'll extend for a week in hopes of meeting its $100,000 goal.
This map tracks the last 1,000 donations to the Fundly campaign, showing that support for Ferguson has come from well beyond his home state of Missouri:

But Ferguson's story of wrongful conviction and a lost decade resonated with people far and wide well before the donations came pouring in. While Ferguson was still in prison, Rognlien and Drew encouraged Facebook supporters to send photos of themselves holding "Free Ryan Ferguson" signs from locations around the United States and world.
More than 100 photos were submitted from places including Toulouse, France:
Post by Freed Ryan Ferguson.
To Waupaca, Wisconsin:
Post by Freed Ryan Ferguson.
To Sydney, Australia:
Post by Freed Ryan Ferguson.
Now, as empathetic strangers continue to donate money on Fundly, on Facebook it's a different sort of photo that's become popular on the newly renamed Freed Ryan Ferguson page. Rognlien says shots of Ferguson doing normal, everyday things — eating cake, hanging out with friends, getting a new driver's license — are consistent hits with followers of the page.
This photo, for example, has been Liked more than 29,000 times:
Post by Freed Ryan Ferguson.
So now that he's free and taking the first steps toward creating a life, what's next for Ferguson and his legion of online supporters? Rognlien says they hope to leverage the momentum Ferguson's case generated to help call attention to other cases of wrongful conviction around the world. They've already seen firsthand the power of positivity and support than total strangers can create from thousands of miles away thanks to social media.
"Ryan's innocence and his lawyer are what got him freed," Ragnlien says. "But these people were making phone calls, writing letters, sending him birthday and holiday cards. They played a huge role of their own."
Images: Freed Ryan Ferguson, Facebook