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FACE-OFF: Ryan Ferguson, left, swears he’s no killer. Charles Erickson, right, now backs up his ex-pal’s claim. (
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Anyone who’s ever heard the sarcastic declaration that “Everyone in prison is innocent,” might think twice about that after watching tonight’s episode of “48 Hours.”

That’s because Erin Moriarty and her “48 Hours” crew make a compelling case for the innocence of Ryan Ferguson, now 30, who was sentenced in 2005 to a 40-year prison term for a murder he swears he didn’t commit.

And this is one guy you just might think is telling the truth.

But even though his ex-pal who fingered Ferguson in the murder has since recanted — as has one of the witnesses to the crime — Ferguson still languishes in his prison cell after having his appeal denied.

And therein lies the Kafka-esque rub of “The Accuser,” which recounts, in detail, Ferguson’s odyssey after being convicted in the gruesome 2001 murder of Kent Heitholt, the well-liked sports editor of the Columbia Daily Tribune in Columbia, Mo.

Heitholt was found beaten to death near his car in the paper’s parking lot in the early hours of the morning, after having just said goodnight to one of his staffers (who’s never been considered a suspect in the murder).

The case remained cold for two years until a guy named Chuck Erickson came forward — claiming that he and his pal, Ryan Ferguson, committed the murder (they were 17 at the time) after a night out drinking and carousing.

Even though there was no evidence (blood, hair, fibers, etc.) at the crime scene linking Ferguson to the murder, he was convicted in 2005. Erickson, meanwhile, took a plea deal for 25 years behind bars.

Four years later, Ferguson received a jailhouse letter from Erickson — saying he’d lied about Ferguson’s involvement and wanted to come clean.

There’s more to the story, which is told in riveting detail by Moriarty, who’s been following Ferguson’s case for seven years (he was the subject of a previous “48 Hours” installment).

There are several interviews with Ferguson and his father — and several startling sitdowns with Erickson, who now insists on being called “Charles” and who can’t understand why his admission that he lied on the stand doesn’t seem to hold much water now.

When all is said and done — all the apparent lies exposed, and some new evidence introduced in tonight’s episode — you just might share Moriarty’s bewilderment: that what appears to be such a cut-and-dried case of a man wrongly imprisoned continues to haunt Ferguson and his family.