i don't even think that i can even describe what i saw let alone what i felt. but i found my mom. >> a wild child party girl, convicted of brutally stabbing her mother to death. >> my mom is bleeding. please, i need somebody come help me right now. >> released from prison after 11 years, she's back in the town that thought she was a killer. >> she must have gone berserk. >> the exclusive "20/20"

interview. >> she did not do it. >> but a lot of people, ev family members, think she is a brat who needs to stay behind bars. >> she said, just give me the effing money. >> there was no rage, no motive. >> and there was almost no alibi. >> just tell us where you were. >> in your opinion, this entire trial was -- >> was a joke, where the punchline is, she spends 11 1/2 years in the pen. >> good evening, i'm elizabeth vargas. david is away tonight. it's a decades-long saga that just concluded this week. did she or didn't she? tonight, a woman is free, but her hometown is convinced she

committed a crime as brutal as it is rare. let us know what you think, guilty or not? here's john quinones. >> reporter: come to western tennessee and you can catch sight of bald eagles, snow geese, and even white pelicans. but on this steamy sunday morning, we are there to catch a glimpse of a rare species of memphis jailbird leaving prison. >> noura jackson is officially a free woman today. >> reporter: convicted of killing her own mother. >> it didn't feel real. i was just really scared that someone was going to tell me to come back in the building. >> reporter: her name is noura jackson, and the astonishing crime for which she's served 11 years is just one aspect of her astonishing story. ansley larrson, one of just a

handful of friends noura has left, drives her back into an outside world that's become oddly unfamiliar. >> and then when we got in the car she drove off really fast. >> you are speeding. >> reporter: time now for slow, simple pleasures. sipping a starbucks latte, exploring a smartphone for the first time. >> where are you the buttons? >> reporter: noura asks to drive past the home where she was raised, the same house where her mother died. >> you want me to do anything? >> i want you to keep going. >> okay. >> i'm trying to think of something to say to stop the tears. >> let yourself go baby, stop trying to control it. it's okay. >> reporter: so many memories, so much pain saturate the silence. echoes of a horrific murder, a panicked 911 call. >> oh, my god.

oh, my god, please, please help me. >> reporter: and to hear noura tell it, a miscarriage of justice. >> guilty of second degree murder as included in the indictment. >> being incarcerated is tough in itself. but being incarcerated for something you didn't do is, is, something else entirely. >> it's very unusual to have an 18-year-old woman accused of killing her mother. 18-year-olds fighting with their mother, very common, 18-year-old killing her mother almost never happens. >> reporter: it wasn't supposed to turn out this way. noura and her mother jennifer jackson lived in this neighborhood just ten miles from the raucous barbecue and blues scene of the famous beale street. mom was a successful bond trader, a triathlete, regular

churchgoer. she raised her only child as a single mom. the fondest memories of your mother. >> birthdays were a really big thing in my house. it's really the little things, you know. >> reporter: noura shared these precious photos of happier times together for mother and daughter. she also recalls shopping with jennifer at the nicer stores in memphis and says it was mom's favorite pastime. >> i don't think there's just one i can pinpoint but just having a mom, you know? that's kind of rough. >> reporter: as the only kid among her friends raised by a single, working mom, she struggled to fit in. for her part, jennifer jackson was by all accounts a very permissive parent. and noura admittedly pushed that freedom to the limit. >> i had a good life, you know. i was your typical memphis teenager, i guess. >> reporter: well, it depends on your definition of "typical." several people have described your life as one of partying, and drinking and drugs. >> it didn't seem like a big deal to us at the time because

that was, that was our life, you know. we did go to parties, you know. we did smoke marijuana. we did drink. now i look back and i can't, you know, rectify who i was as a 16 and 17 or an 18-year-old. >> reporter: but at 18, noura still hadn't graduated, bouncing between five different high schools, and finally home schooled. >> she was a brat. >> reporter: ansley larsson, a family friend who makes her living selling handmade jewelry, saw noura as a diamond in the rough. she knew because jennifer often called for advice on raising her difficult teen. >> noura is extremely charming, even when she's a brat, and i just loved her from the minute i met her. >> my mother was not just a parent. but she was a friend so when your friend is your disciplinarian, you know, the rules are different for you. and there, there weren't rules for me the way there were for everybody else. >> reporter: so other parents thought you were the wild child then. >> yes. i was. i had earned that reputation, yes. >> reporter: yes, the shoe fit and noura wore it till the heel came off.

which brings us to the turning point, the hotly disputed events of that saturday night in june 12 years ago. school is out and the party is on. noura gets this nice manicure, remember that detail. then she says she goes out and paints the town red and doesn't stumble home till 5:00 a.m. the next morning. >> i had no idea what was about to happen to me or, you know, how it would shape the rest of my life. i remember coming in and seeing the broken glass at my house. >> reporter: this is the glass she's talking about, part of a broken door window. >> there had been times when my mother had broken the glass before. like if she was locked out. that didn't register in my mind that something terrible had happened. as i went back to my bedroom i noticed that my mom's door was open. and i don't even think that i could even describe what i saw, let alone what i felt. but i found my mom.

>> reporter: at the foot of the bed? >> yeah. can i have just one second? >> reporter: it's still hard for her to talk about, and here's why. jennifer jackson is covered in blood, sprawled naked on the floor. stabbed 50 times. nancy grace has studied the case. >> the mom was so brutalized, just soaked in blood, she had stab wounds to every part of her body. >> she wasn't moving. i remember shaking her. and then i remember being scared. i remember running across the street to get help. >> reporter: noura rouses a neighbor and they run back to the house together. she says panic has set in by the time she calls 911. >> oh, my god. oh, my god. oh, my god, please, please help me. please send --

>> please calm down so we can help your mother, okay? >> reporter: an ugly crime, a pretty victim, and a mushrooming whodunit. >> the 39-year-old jackson was killed over the weekend. >> reporter: but what makes this case truly remarkable is that this isn't the first time. >> noura jackson's been through this before. her father was killed a year and a half ago. >> reporter: that's right, this is actually the second time one of noura jackson's parents has turned up dead. stay with us. see me. see me. don't stare at me. see me. see me. see me to know that psoriasis is just something that i have. i'm not contagious. see me to know that... ...i won't stop until i find what works. discover cosentyx, a different kind of medicine for moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. proven to help the majority of people find clear or almost clear skin. 8 out of 10 people saw 75% skin clearance at 3 months. while the majority saw 90% clearance. do not use if you are allergic to cosentyx. before starting, you should be tested for tuberculosis.

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"20/20" continues. once again, john quinones. >> reporter: as the yellow tape goes up on jennifer jackson's front lawn, theories of her murder start blooming like tennessee passion flowers. >> police calling jackson's murder a home invasion robbery/homicide. >> reporter: maybe it's a robbery gone wrong. the house appears to be ransacked. a mess of boxes and packages all over. yet police soon realize that's because jennifer jackson's shopping habit was really more of a compulsion. >> nothing was stolen from the home. nothing was even ransacked or pillaged. >> reporter: but now another disturbing theory emerges,

linked to a prior tragedy in noura's life. jennifer was divorced from noura's father, nazmi hassanieh and coincidentally, nazmi was murdered as well. >> jackson has been through this before. her father was killed a year and a half ago. >> reporter: we haven't said much about noura's father because, in truth, he wasn't around much. this much we do know -- nazmi hassanieh, born in lebanon, owned a local limousine company and gas station convenience store. he named it noura's kwik stop, after the daughter he rarely saw. >> he led an alternative lifestyle to say the very least. >> reporter: on this fateful night in january, 2004, the kwik stop security cameras are rolling when a killer comes to call. nazmi meets with him off-camera and is immediately shot in the head. >> so it was more or less walk through the front door, walk to the back, fire the shot.

>> reporter: a police investigator tells a local station that this doesn't look like a routine robbery. watch as the killer stashes the security camera tape in his coat, not knowing there's a backup. >> he goes through the drawers in the office as if he's looking for something, and it's sort of a last minute thing in which he takes the cash from the cash register. >> reporter: an afterthought. >> he was really assassinated. >> reporter: bill shelton was friends with nazmi. he feels the killer may have been searching for an incriminating videotape. but why? >> there's been speculation that it may have been a video of someone in a sexual encounter. >> reporter: a clue -- noura's kwik stop was between a police precinct and a strip club. not prime real estate, but perhaps a good place for another kind of "quick stop." >> nazmi told me once that a

policeman had used his back office to have sex with one of the dancers down at platinum plus. >> reporter: wait, there's more. shelton suspects his friend had quite a dark side. was nazmi running a blackmail operation? >> i've heard other speculation that he had cameras in his limousines and he was filming people having sex with prostitutes. >> reporter: a secret sex tape? did someone want them badly enough to kill? >> that man was looking for something then. 16 months later was murdered, probably by the same person who killed nazmi. >> that is a myth. things like that only happen in the movies, and this is not a movie, this is real. >> reporter: the murder of noura's father was never solved. and now her mother has been killed too. the wild child is now an orphan. >> 18-year-old noura jackson returns home to collect a few things just one day after she found her mother's body.

>> your parents are, like, the people that bring you into this world and they're the people that you know, no matter what, you know have your back. >> reporter: unconditional love. >> unconditional love, yeah. >> reporter: noura's problems are just beginning, because police are suddenly gravitating to a new suspect her. their suspicion starts with that 911 call. listen as the operator asks if her mother has been shot. >> was anyone shot? >> no. >> so when did noura jackson get her medical degree? that night? how did she know from a distance her mother had not been shot? >> reporter: then, those 50 stab wounds. >> when someone has been stabbed this many times, the authorities will immediately be thinking that this isn't a stranger, this is someone who was angry and enraged. >> i know that everybody says that means it was personal.

i think it means that whoever did it was scared and adrenaline took over and started stabbing just out of their minds. >> reporter: but now take a look back at the broken window noura noticed when she came home. >> the scene is totally staged. there's no intruder. because look at the glass that was broken. only someone familiar with that home would know that there was a lock, a second lock up beside the broken glass, but it was only visible from inside the house. >> reporter: did you break that glass? >> no, i did not. >> reporter: there's a much bigger question that trips noura up. jennifer jackson was killed sometime between her last phone call with noura at 12:20 a.m. and that 911 call at 5:00. so where, exactly, was noura during that time? you were not in that house? >> no, i was not in that house. >> reporter: before 5:00. >> before 5:00, no.

>> reporter: that's what she says. noura's story to the cops -- her evening kicked off at a local italian festival. then hits two house parties. after a phone call with her mom, noura buys cigarettes at 12:46. then at 4:20, she buys gas before heading home. but what about this? between 1:00 and 3:00 a.m., noura's cell phone goes oddly quiet. and something she failed to mention to the cops -- a 4:00 a.m. stop here at this walgreens to buy first aid supplies for a cut on her hand. >> i could watch that walgreen security footage all day long. she couldn't stop the blood on her hand. in fact she takes the paper towel away from the cashier and is trying to staunch the flow of blood on her hand. >> reporter: the most damning evidence, though, noura is that video tape of you at walgreens buying emergency first aid supplies. the peroxide. the bandages. >> right. which is why i probably neglected to tell the police that.

i was put in a locked room. they started making a very big deal about the cut on my hand. and i'd just got that feeling that something wasn't right. so, no, i was not forthcoming with information, but not because i had anything to hide, but because i felt like i was being looked at. >> reporter: yes, she was. and three months later, the party is officially over for noura jackson. she's arrested for her own mother's murder. and even if matricide is a rarity, the good people of memphis seem to think noura had it in her. >> she must've just gone berserk. you know, i don't know. i hate to throw that in, but that's the way we all feel. >> everybody knew it. everybody. >> reporter: did you have anything to do with the killing of your mother? >> no. >> reporter: could it have been that you were high, you were, you said you were smoking weed, you did drugs. maybe you were in a -- >> no. >> reporter: -- drug haze and

did this and -- >> no. no, i won't deny that. i smoked marijuana that night. we had been drinking. amongst other things, but no. i didn't kill my mother. >> reporter: but now the die is cast and noura's hard partying reputation and that controversial cut are about to cause trouble for her in court. >> the biggest problem for her in this case, what she was doing and her own differing accounts of how she cut her hand. >> reporter: and could that fresh manicure be noura's best defense? we'll be back. knowing exactly where every almond comes from. but the whole "care-and-nurturing-making- sure-they-grow- up-just-right" part? that idea... ...we borrowed from the experts. ♪ blue diamond almond breeze. the best almonds make the best almondmilk.

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>> reporter: the shelby county justice center in downtown memphis is about to become a coliseum for two legal gladiators. in noura jackson's corner, a pitbull of a defense attorney named valerie corder, who loves a legal dogfight almost as much as she loves her dog, beasley. why would you take this case on, pro bono? >> i have a soft spot for people who are being bullied or treated unjustly or unfairly. >> reporter: across the aisle, prosecutor amy wierich, an ambitious, no-holds-barred assistant d.a. >> amy is a real no-nonsense type. very intense throughout. >> reporter: as the trial starts, wierich comes out swinging for the electrified fences. she wants a life sentence. >> that defendant killed her mother with premeditation. >> reporter: wierich calls many of the kids in noura's circle to the stand. a phalanx of her now-former

friends lines up to portray her as a girl gone wild. >> on the stand today we heard from more of noura jackson's friends. >> she liked to use xanax bars. >> pharmaceutical drugs. >> cocaine. >> reporter: how much did that hurt her case? >> significantly. >> reporter: noura's friends admitted to doing much of the same alongside her. >> most of the stuff they said was true. i mean, she was doing that. but so were they. if the behavior that she exhibited was grounds for mother murder, then why aren't all those other children's mothers dead? they were right along with her. >> reporter: aside from soiling noura's reputation, the prosecution raises suspicions about her behavior on the night of the crime. this is the neighbor noura ran to for help after finding her mother's body. he grabbed his gun and ran back with noura. >> and i got to that front door first and i took a deep breath. i do remember that she went in the door before me.

and i thought, "there's somebody in that house." >> if you thought somebody was in the house and you thought your mother was injured, why would you have run back in before the guy with the gun. >> a lot was made of my actions, you know, of what i did or didn't do or, you know, but i don't think they write a handbook on stuff like that. >> if my mother had been murdered, i'd be running all over the place without realizing what i was doing. >> reporter: and anyway, why would noura murder her own mom? to answer that, the prosecution paints a picture of a relationship in crisis. jennifer jackson, they claim, was finally trying to rein in her untamed daughter. >> she was just out of control. >> reporter: judge chris craft presided over the case. >> she was shutting down her lifestyle and was going to send her somewhere where she wouldn't be able to have sex and drugs. and that was the motive for the killing. >> there was a portrayal of her as not only friction in, in their relationship, but much

more than that. much more violent, much more antagonistic. >> reporter: that is the theme of this damning testimony from onetime friend kirby mcdonald. >> noura said, "my mom's a [ bleep ] and needs to go to hell." >> you know what, my mother was a bitch sometimes too and sometimes i wanted her to go to hell. i don't know if noura said that or didn't say that, but so what if she did? they're teenage girls, for heaven's sake. >> reporter: noura says it never happened. did you argue about partying and curfews? >> i didn't, i didn't have a curfew. we had things that we didn't agree on, but there was a respect there. i didn't hide things from my mom. >> reporter: another suggested motive -- money. prosecutors claim noura's deceased father left behind a sizable estate. the defense denies that, but neighbor sheila cocke says noura was salivating for cash. >> i was out on the street walking my dog and they were coming in and i heard noura say, "just give me the effing money. just give me the effing money."

>> reporter: and it's not just friends and neighbors pointing the finger. now, remarkably, noura's own family has come to court, not to praise her, but to bury her. here's noura's uncle eric sherwood. >> i asked noura if she had any idea about my sister's death, anything to help out with the detectives, and she just basically just put her head down and wouldn't say anything. that was it. >> reporter: he also tells the court that he had heard noura pressing jennifer about her assets and life insurance just days before she was murdered. your own uncle testified that you killed your mother because you wanted the money. >> that's the one that hurt me. that's the one that pierced my heart. >> reporter: noura's aunts also pile on, hoping to send their own niece to prison. >> they wouldn't talk to each other, and just, it was very cold. >> what shocked me was what they didn't say, you know.

they didn't say that, you know, they -- they never really cared for me. they didn't say that they never liked my father. >> it's never helpful when your family isn't on your side in a case where someone is accused of killing a family member. >> reporter: noura's aunts say the real reason they turned on her is because she could never explain where she was at the time of the crime. >> i would have gotten her lawyers, anything she needed if she had an alibi and could prove to me where she was or who she was with when my sister was murdered. and she said i don't know. >> reporter: and now the prosecution's key witness, her quiet, reserved friend andrew hammack, who they hope will blow noura's alibi out of the water. >> andrew hammack describes their relationship at the time as friends with benefits. >> reporter: he tells the jury he exchanged calls and texts with noura around the time of

the murder. he says she told him she was at the house, and asked him to meet her there. she also left a string of messages. >> it was throughout the night and the last thing i do remember when i woke up the morning of june 5th is i had a text message or a voicemail that said "answer," "i need to talk to you" or something. >> reporter: and what about that suspicious cut? >> the biggest problem for her in this case are her own words. her own differing accounts of how she cut her hand. >> reporter: let's count. >> she claimed that she cut it at an italian festival. >> she told me that she was in her house, chasing her kitten through the kitchen and cut it on some glass. >> she said that she cut it on barbed wire. >> she said she cut it getting the cat out of the garage. >> i burned it cooking macaroni and cheese. >> i cooked a lot of kraft mac and cheese and i've never gashed my hand open and raced to walgreen for band-aids. >> reporter: all these people testified that there were different stories you gave about how you got that cut in your hand. >> i mean, i gave my statement to the police and i will allow

that to speak for itself. >> reporter: that statement matches the first version. that she cut it at the italian festival. but then why, prosecutors ask, was there a cover-up, literally, despite the steamy 90-degree heat. >> for days afterward wearing nothing but long sleeves that she held in her wrists like this to try to cover up that cut. i mean, what more do i have to tell you? >> yes. i wore long sleeves. i was known for that. my father's lebanese. i have very, very hairy arms. i used to shave them when i was younger. >> reporter: the battery of witnesses, the wafer-thin alibi, the questionable cut -- none of it looks good for noura. but, wait. will dna found at the scene get her off the hook? >> not only was noura's dna not found in the room, but someone else's was. >> reporter: stay with us. igh o. thinking about what to avoid,

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"20/20" continues. once again, john quinones. >> an emotional start to day six of the jackson murder trial. >> reporter: the news is bad for noura jackson. with this much circumstantial evidence, it seems unlikely

she'll be "walking in memphis." >> the defendant killed her mother. >> reporter: but noura does not despair, because there's a gap in the state's case as wide as the mississippi. there's no forensic evidence connecting her to the crime. >> you would think if you have a bloody fight with a knife that her dna will be somewhere. there was no bloody clothes found, and there was no bloody knife found. >> reporter: these knives are at the scene but cops can't identify the murder weapon. >> and they tested a lot of evidence. and it's quite significant that most of that evidence had absolutely nothing to do with noura jackson. noura's blood was not at the crime scene. and jennifer's blood was not on noura. >> it does seem a little bit strange that there would not be any of hers there, giving the violence of this whole episode.

>> reporter: but now it gets more complicated, because investigators did find the dna of two other females, still unidentified. were they the real killers? >> not only was noura's dna not found in the room, but someone else's was. the defense's position is, well, find those people. >> reporter: investigators couldn't find a match, but they also had no way of knowing if that dna pre-dated the night of the murder. and there is more evidence that could point to another unknown suspect, and away from noura. this envelope contains small clumps of hair gripped in jennifer's dead hand. they're blonde. noura's hair is brown. so whose were they? we don't know, because forensic experts never tested them. the clump of hair. >> i find that really hard to believe. that, you know, you will parade 40 witnesses to say that i did

this, partook in drugs, that i drank, that i did all that. but you didn't test a clump of hair found in a murdered woman's hands? >> news flash. check your law books. the defense can test evidence too. noura jackson's team wouldn't touch that hair with a ten-foot pole. why? because that way they could complain about it throughout the entire trial suggesting that the state had failed. >> reporter: but noura's lawyer says a test would have been worthless. >> the hair that was later found had not been maintained in a chain of custody that would have made it worthwhile to test it because we would not have been able to prove it hadn't been tampered with. >> the prosecution has now rested its case. >> reporter: the prosecution rests, and there's a big surprise. you don't call a single witness. was that a reckless decision? >> no, it wasn't a reckless decision. it was -- it's very unusual for a defendant to testify unless it's a self-defense case. >> she wasn't going to testify, but other people could've testified in her defense. >> reporter: so why not put some witnesses on the stand who were friends of her, who would

have spoken positively of noura? >> well, in retrospect that does seem to be an issue. >> she needed to have a defense. i don't know what they could've done, but they could've done something. >> reporter: if noura had testified, she might have sounded something like this. you wouldn't kill your mother because you were in a rage? >> no. >> reporter: you wouldn't kill her for the money. >> no. there was no rage. there was no money. there was no motive. so one was created. >> ladies and gentlemen, this case is about jennifer jackson. >> reporter: in closing, prosecutor steven jones returns to noura's motivation for matricide. >> her mother was the only thing between the defendant's lifestyle of freedom, she was the only thing between the defendant's father's money and the defendant. she wasn't going to cut bologna with those knives, she was going

to cut the thing that was standing in the way of her lifestyle of freedom. >> reporter: then prosecutor amy weirich turns to noura and adds a dramatic flourish that will later have a far-reaching impact. >> just tell us where you were. that's all we're asking, noura. >> objection, your honor. >> reporter: and then there was that manicure. in the defense closing, valerie corder argues the condition of noura's hands is actually proof of her innocence, despite that cut. >> her nails that had been manicured the day before were pristine. there was not a chip. a flake. a crack. no blood. no hair. no nothing. those were not the hands of a child who had killed her mother. >> it just seems logical that you've got all this motion, you've got all this force, you've got blood going wherever, it seems like there would be more of that type of injury than just one cut. >> reporter: then corder plays her strongest card. the lack of other physical evidence. but is it an ace? >> none of noura jackson's blood.

pillow, none of noura jackson's blood. >> this doesn't prove it. this doesn't prove it. this doesn't prove it. >> comforters, dust ruffles, other items from the bedroom, none of noura jackson's blood. the only place where they found noura's dna was in the sample she had volunteered to them. it wasn't on any of the evidence. is she a diabolical, premeditated killer who's brilliant and leaves absolutely no blood on the scene? or is she some drug addled foolish teenager? it can't possibly be both. >> your best hope if you're the defense isn't that the jurors say, "there's no way she did it." instead you're hoping they say, "yeah, i think she might have done it, but that's not proof beyond a reasonable doubt." >> reporter: when we return, there's a verdict, but is there justice? how the prosecutor winds up on the hot seat. we'd really like to talk to you

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>> reporter: after 12 days and 40 witnesses, the jury has heard enough. >> all right, verdict reads as follows. we the jury find the defendant guilty of second degree murder. >> circumstantial evidence just drew a tight noose around her and there was no way she could get out of that. >> reporter: noura bows her head while her dead mother's sisters and friends exchange hugs. >> i just couldn't believe it. it's -- they didn't prove anything. how do you convict this child? >> i really was of the belief that, you know, i would go to trial, and i would prove that i'm innocent, and then i will get to go home. and i think i was in shock. >> we are disappointed with the verdict. >> reporter: years later, noura is still haunted by her decision not to testify. are you sorry you didn't?

>> oh, i'm beyond sorry that i didn't. but i don't like to live in a world of regret. you know, there's nothing i can do about that. >> reporter: it's true that there was virtually no forensic evidence against noura, and yet the jury convicted her. were you overconfident? too cocky? >> oh, i don't think i could be described as that. it was very difficult to sit through two weeks of family members, friends, neighbors, and other people, focusing on behavior that did not prove she had killed her mother. >> reporter: during the following years in prison, only ansley and a handful of other friends visit noura. was it tough on you? made you a tough person? >> yes, it's definitely survival of the fittest. >> reporter: valerie corder never stops fighting for noura. over the next 11 years, while her client is doing her "orange is the new black" thing, corder appeals the case all the way up to the tennessee supreme court with newsworthy results.

>> more information on the jackson case. >> reporter: remember prosecutor amy weirich's big moment? >> just tell us where you were, that's all we're asking, noura. >> reporter: those words, according to corder, violated noura's constitutional right not to testify. >> it was a rhetorical question, but the supreme court in their wisdom decided that that was a comment on noura's choice to remain silent. >> reporter: and remember that key witness andrew hammack, the only one who put noura at the crime scene? it turns out the prosecution never disclosed this contradictory statement. >> he had written a handwritten note saying, oh, yeah, i was totally drugged out and high as a kite at the time, so i don't remember it all that well. >> reporter: he was rolling on ecstasy, he wrote.

>> we know now, his misstatement of the evidence is rather clear. >> i'm like, i was ecstatic. i didn't even believe it. and it said noura jackson to receive new trial. i can't even begin to express the emotions, but it seemed surreal. >> reporter: so, in your opinion, this entire trial was -- >> it was a joke. but it wasn't a joke. because the punch line is noura jackson spends 11 1/2 years in the frigging pen. >> reporter: for something -- >> she did not do it. >> reporter: now, a retrial looms. but it doesn't look like that throng of prosecution witnesses is too eager for a repeat performance. >> other witnesses have not been able to be located and yet other witnesses have indicated to us

that they will not be willing to come forward. >> reporter: so both sides compromise. noura signs what's called an alford plea. >> she basically said, "i will accept responsibility for this. i will take the punishment for this, but i have to be able to say that i didn't do it. i'm not going to admit guilt." >> it counts as a guilty plea and it counts as a conviction. so that under the law you are guilty. >> it's very likely that it would have taken another year, if not two years, to have gotten her case to trial. it is a way to end this decade-long drama and trauma to be able to leave prison and begin your life. >> i felt pressured and i had no -- i wanted my life back. >> reporter: still, it takes another 15 months until noura is finally sprung from the big house. >> greeted by her friend after

more than a decade behind bars. >> reporter: as for amy weirich, she's now the county district attorney, but found herself facing ethics charges from the state. prosecutor amy weirich is up on charges of professional misconduct. she's refused to give us an interview so we're waiting here to demand answers. all right, let's go. i'm john quinones with "20/20." we'd like to talk to you about the noura jackson case. >> not right now. >> reporter: we've been trying to get in touch with you. the state has called for your public censure, for botching that murder case. >> it's not a fair assessment at all and it will play itself out in the appropriate forum. >> reporter: your trial errors either sent an innocent girl to prison or they let a killer go free. which is worse? >> she killed her mother and did her time for it. >> reporter: we'd really like to talk to you about this. why can't we sit down and talk to you? >> you can make an appointment like everybody else. >> reporter: we tried. judge craft, on the other hand, is happy to discuss the case.

>> i thought noura jackson had a very fair trial and she was obviously guilty and i ruled she was obviously guilty. >> reporter: when we return, noura is free at last, and ready to return to the family hornet's nest to claim her inheritance. are going to fight your family yeah, i just saved a whole lot of money by swhuh.ing to geico. we should take a closer look at geico... you know, geico insures way more than cars. boats, motorcycles... even rvs! geico insures rvs? what's an rv? uh, the thing we've been stuck on for five years! wait, i'm not a real moose?? we've been over this, jeff... we're stickers! i'm not a real moose? give him some space. deep breaths, jeff. what's a sticker?!?

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>> reporter: the morning of her release from prison, noura walks into ansley's house, her new home. one of the few places in memphis where she's still welcome. >> i want to go outside, can i? >> yeah. >> they've always had a great backyard. it's just so nice to be able to go outside if i want to go outside and to not have to get

someone's permission. >> reporter: then they visit target to shop for new clothes. >> noura didn't have a mother anymore and her family -- >> reporter: turned on her. >> shame on them. >> reporter: trying to restart her life, noura begins a job in the kitchen of a nearby bar and grill. having earned her ged in jail, she's applying to colleges now. your mother left an estate that's worth about $1.5 million. >> yes. >> reporter: are you going to fight your family for a piece of that? >> yes. >> reporter: since we spoke to noura, she settled with her mother's sisters for a portion of that estate, though the amount is confidential. she may have some of the money, but she hasn't won over many of her critics. >> she basically won the lottery on this one. she walked free on her mother's murder. >> reporter: how often do you think about your mother? >> every day. every day.

but more than anything i just, i wish i could talk to her. i think she'd be proud of who i am. my home was my mom. you know, it wasn't a house. it wasn't clothes or a car. it was, it was my mother. >> just this week, disciplinary charges were dropped against the prosecutor in exchange for her accepting a private reprimand. our question, would you take that conviction or fight to prove your innocence? thank you for watching tonight. i'm elizabeth vargas. for david and all of us here at "20/20," good night and have a great weekend. obamacare is the law of the land after the gop pulled its

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