this is "nightline." >> tonight, finally free. a moment of pure joy. >> i feel like my life is starting over again. this is a miracle day. >> 22 years in the making. we're with alice marie johnson hours after her release from prison, thanks in part to a major celebrity endorsement and a commutation by president trump. the real story behind this picture. and who the president might be pardoning next. plus, neighborhood hero. ♪ it's a beautiful day in this neighborhood ♪ >> mr. rogers still touching hearts young -- >> who liked it? >> i liked it! >> and old. >> mr. rogers. >> but who was he when the

cameras were off? a new look at an old friend. his legacy, his lessons, and those who knew him best. >> 50 years you were married to mr. rogers, which makes you mrs. rogers. >> that's right, that's right. >> how he'd respond to incivility. ♪ would you be mine could you be mine ♪ ♪ won't you be my neighbor >> first the "nightline 5." ♪ >> only tylenol rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast for fast pain relief. tylenol. i kept finding myself smoking in my attic, hiding when i was supposed to be quitting. i thought, you should try something that works. try nicorette. >> nicorette mini relieves sudden cravings fast. any time, anywhere. you know why, we know how. >> number one in just 60 seconds. (sound of footsteps) (sound of car door opening)

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good evening and thank you for joining us. tonight we witness the first moments of freedom with a woman who has spent two decades behind bars. now enjoying family dinner with her children and grandchildren after a life sentence for first-time drug offense was commuted by president trump. thanks in part to kim kardashian west. it's a reunion more than two decades in the making. a lifetime of emotion for a family once broken, now made whole. >> we gave never up! never! >> thank you jesus! >> reporter: 63-year-old alice marie johnson, grandmother of six, sentenced to life in prison without parole. >> i'm feel nothing handcuffs, nothing on me. i'm free to hug my family. >> reporter: she was convicted of money laundering and

trafficking in cocaine. yesterday, president trump commuted her sentence. and she walked out of federal prison. >> i want to thank president donald john trump. for giving me another chance at life. and restoring me to my family. >> reporter: these are her first moments of freedom in nearly 22 years and the first time she's been home. marked by love and embraces from family old and new. a scene of pure joy. something that would have seemed impossible until october last year when reality star kim kardashian west shared this tweet with over 60 million of her followers. this is so unfair, it read. referring to this video, alice sharing her story behind bars, created by the publication "mike." >> i'll never forget this. they told me that coming to visit in prison is like coming

to visit a gravesite. >> i knew it was heartbreaking, my mouth and jaw were oth floor when i first saw her speak. i never predicted what would happen next. >> reporter: after jake horowitz at "mike" heard alice share her story, he says he knew it could help illustrate a bigger problem. >> the purpose of the story was to shine light on a woman who has a heartbreaking story, but also shed light on a deeper issue, criminal justice reform. >> it's like an unexecuted sentence of death. >> reporter: the video mike created of alice went viral, seen over 4 million times, including kim kardashian west, who turned into johnson's biggest supporter, hiring her own legal team to look at alice's case. >> genuinely for months working behind the scenes to get alice johnson released. >> reporter: kardashian's determination bringing her to the oval office, the moment captured photo was surreal. a validation of the amount of work kim kardashian west had

done. >> reporter: kardashian after her meeting with trump. >> i really strongly believe that she is someone that has completely rehabilitated herself. >> reporter: and then on wednesday, the announcement comes. >> i mean, it came as a surprise to all of us. >> reporter: kardashian herself delivering the news to johnson, describing the moment to cnn's van jones. >> we cried maybe on the phone for like three minutes straight. like everyone was just crying. >> reporter: the president chiming in this morning. good luck to alice johnson, have a wonderful life. but even in the worlds of hollywood and politics, the response time to alice's case is an enigma. >> normally pardons take years to work through the system. for president trump to take the meeting, die jest the information, issue the pardon, for her to be released within a couple of weeks, it has no precedent in modern times. >> reporter: it's not the first time president trump has flexed his presidential clemency muscle. last year trump pardoned controversial sheriff joe arpaio, convicted of criminal contempt of court. he's now running for the u.s.

senate. >> today as president i've issued an executive grant of clemency, a full pardon posthumously, to john arthur jack johnson -- >> reporter: late last month he pardoned the late jack johnson, former heavyweight boxing champ, after a believe from sill advice store stallone. >> this is important to my friend of a long time, sly -- >> people in positions of power have learned how to speak trump, use the right combination of flattery and celebrity to get inside his ear. >> i, gerald r. ford -- >> reporter: the power of the pardon isn't something presidents have shied away from using in the past. >> -- do grant a full, free, and absolute pardon oun to richard nixon -- >> presidents have used to this settle political scores, toed is in messages, to do what i think the founding fathers intended it to do, to correct individual instances of injustice in the system. >> reporter: president obama commuted more than 1,700 stiff sentences, most for nonviolent

drug crimes. president trump has taken a harder approach to those crimes. >> when you catch a drug dealer, you got to put them away for a long time. >> reporter: in fact, it was just last year that attorney general jeff sessions rolled back an obama policy that would have eased penalties for nonviolent drug violations like johnson's. now president trump's actions in johnson's case, surprising some as diversions from policy. >> at some point we're going to have to figure out exactly what this administration's position is on drug crimes and the sentences that should be applicable. >> reporter: before alice's story caught the attention of the world media, her case was just one of many being taken on by the american civil liberties union. >> when i talked to alice, i knew instantly this was somebody who did not belong in prison. >> reporter: for five years, jennifer turner was one of the aclu's representatives on alice's case. >> ultimately we thought alice was going to die behind bars, until kim kardashian stepped in.

and said, you know, what can i do to help? >> reporter: despite the emotion and empathy, alice's case is not the only one. jennifer has hundreds of others who may never have a celebrity endorsement. >> so here's alice's file. she's just one of hundreds of people whose files we have who are serving life without parole for nonviolent offenses. >> reporter: jennifer says aclu's research shows that there are more than 3,200 people serving life without the possibility of parole for nonviolent offenses. nearly 80% of whom are drug-related crimes. >> i hope that president trump is really bitten by the bug and i hope that he looks at other people like alice who deserve a second chance at life and should be reunited with their families. >> reporter: while so many other people like her spend another night in prison, alice marie johnson is living life as a free woman. thankful, while also sending the white house a message. >> i'd like to tell him that, please, please remember us, the

others who have been left behind. because there is so many. >> reporter: tonight the family meetings that were once counted by the minute in a prison cell, now seem limitless. ♪ i just can't give up now >> reporter: a grandmother granted grace, for whom song says more than simply words. ♪ nobody told me the road would be easy ♪ ♪ and i don't believe he brought me this far to leave me ♪ next, behind the cardigan, who was the real mr. rogers? and how his lessons still matter today. >> you know, i think that people long to be in touch with honesty. man 1: proof of less joint pain...

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mr. rogers taught kindness, curiosity, and civility to an entire generation. he was the pillar of comfort and clarity in uncertain times. and now over a decade after his death, america might need him more than ever. tonight we introduce him to children who have never heard his inviting catchphrase, "won't you be my neighbor?" here's abc's john donvan. >> reporter: there is a generation of young adults and children who just never knew, like these 4 and 5-year-olds, who when i asked -- do you know

who this is? just gave back a long silence before they started guessing. >> is he a library man? >> library man, no. >> lives in japan? >> no. >> is he barack obama? >> no, he's not barack obama, no. >> reporter: because they never got the chance to know what you have to be at least 20 or 21 to know. >> that's mr. rogers. >> he was lots of fun to watch. i wish i could be princess and live in the castle and have the king and queen, oh, yeah, i love that. >> can you identify this man? >> yes. >> exactly. >> what's this? >> my heart. >> your heart? >> that's my heart right there. >> really? >> yeah, i love him. ♪ it's a beautiful day in this neighborhood ♪ >> reporter: you think of the song mr. rogers made famous, the innocence-filled ode to getting along with each other. then you consider how utterly that song would fail today as a soundtrack for the present moment. >> your staff is speaking spannish to customers when they should be speaking -- >> do something about your dad's immigration practices, you

feckless [ bleep ]. >> reporter: the us versus them way we demonize each other. with the fashion for nastiness in social media, people calling names, incivility of discourse among our leaders. >> get that [ bleep ] off the field right now, out, he's fired. >> reporter: or does it? could it, in fact, be that we need mr. rogers now more than ever? ♪ please won't you be my neighbor ♪ >> reporter: as it happens, fred rogers is a man i got to know some myself when i profiled him for "nightline" in 2001. that was the year he hung up his sweater. fred was a superstar by then. >> when i was a little girl, there were many confusing messages about white and black and who belonged where. but we knew we belong the with you. >> thank you for that. >> reporter: that happened everywhere he went. fred rogers made connections with millions of people that lasted a lifetime. and i remember asking him about that.

to watch so many people walk up to you, and all of them saying two words, "thank you." over and over. "thank you." what are they all thanking you for? >> you know, i think that people long to be in touch with honesty. we're not going to fudge stuff. we're going to tell them the truth. and we're not going to dance around and say how happy things are when they're not. and i have a feeling that that's part of the thank you. >> reporter: the neighborhood did not try to dazzle or distract little kids. it was there to help them understand the world they were growing up into, with straight talk on sometimes difficult topics that took their feelings seriously. >> did you ever know any grown-ups who got married and then later they got a divorce? >> reporter: most famously, 50 years ago this week -- >> those of us who loved him and take him to his rest today -- >> reporter: immediately following the assassination of robert kennedy, mr. rogers found a way to help kids put that in

perspective. >> what does assassination mean? >> have you heard that word a lot today? >> yes. >> reporter: then, after september 11th, mr. rogers came out of television retirement again to comfort. >> i know how tough it is some days to look with hope and confidence on the months and years ahead. >> hi, officer clemens, come in. >> reporter: fred rogers was also a subtle revolutionary. he introduced francois clemens into the cast at a time when african-americans had little visibility on television, playing a police officer. >> i had no desire to be a police officer. it was the last thing on my mind. but fred was a very persuasive person. >> reporter: and he had them cool their feet down together. chemic clemens told me rogers, who was also an ordained presbyterian

minister, told me the scene was inspired by the new testament account of jesus washing the feet of disciple peter. >> this was no accident. he knew what he was doing. >> reporter: on that day i spent with fred in 2001, he may already have been sick with the stomach cancer that two years later uld takeis life. and the surprising thing after that was how quickly his legacy was shunted off to be part of yesterday. the set of the neighborhood became literally a museum piece. mr. rogers' place in our consciousness had lost its relevance. or maybe not. >> oh my god! >> reporter: only last year, following a terrorist attack at an ariana grande concert in manchester, england, a video of fred rogers speaking to the television academy began bounding around social media, one where he talks about the advice his mom gave him. >> she would say, always look for the helpers. there will always be helpers. >> reporter: advice from a man who could make a frightening

world seem less frightening. something some of us really seem to be missing right now. >> i think we could all use mr. rogers now for sure. >> if he could show up again today, that would be a good thing? >> yes. >> reporter: well in a way, he is. tom hanks will be playing mr. rogers in a movie. >> i like you. >> and i like you, my dear. >> reporter: and then there's that documentary. >> that little bit that he put into each of us, that little lesson, that little sense of propriety or neighborliness that he put into us. that's the thing that i think is kind of immeasurable. >> is it alive in the land, given how polarized we are? >> that's why i made this film, i want to know. let's have a discussion. what kind of neighbors are we? are we living up to what fred rogers wanted us to do? >> reporter: the film includes interviews with someone who spent a lot of years with mr. rogers. 50 years you were married to mr. rors, which makes you mrs. rogers. >> that's right, that's right. i'm joann. >> reporter: joann, who told me she also thinks the times we're in could use her husband again,

who happened to be a life-long republican. >> here we have somebody leading us right now who is not a forgiver. his values are very, very different from fred's values. almost completely opposite. >> you could imagine fred rogers actually coming out and speaking up about that? the person whose name we are not naming? >> i think he might have to. >> really. so that would be political? >> that would be political. >> which is something he tried to avoid? >> yes, yes. >> reporter: but fred was cautious about the fact that one of the characters on the show, officer clemens again, was, in real life, gay. and fred wanted that kept quiet. >> that was a part of me that was heartbroken. i'm also a realist. there are lots of places where i could not be openly gay. >> fred in a way was a revolutionary in a way he was not a revolutionary. >> that's right. he always was thinking about that audience of adults who were going to take away his children. >> turn off the television?

>> yes. >> do you think fred today would give francois that same advice? >> probably not. no, not now. >> reporter: how about those kids who never heard of mr. rogers? who grew up knowing mostly entertainment that is action-packed, ever-changing, fast-moving? here was a visit to a farm with fred rogers. 13 slow-moving minutes. and the kids were -- they were entranced. >> the machine fills them up so fast. >> it was nice seeing you, fred. >> nice singyou. >> who liked it? >> i liked it! >> i liked it! >> repor what did they see in fred rogers? >> he seems like he's nice. and he helps a lot. >> reporter: so there it is. fred rogers still making connections that, who knows, could last a lifetime. >> i would watch it every day, and i'd watch it after that day. >> i'll watch it until i get old! >> reporter: for "nightline," i'm john donvan in new york. a final thought when we come back.

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and finally tonight, it was mr. fred rogers who said, "there are three ways to ultimate success. the first way is to be kind. the second way is to be kind. the third way is to be kind." and as always,we're online on our "nightline" facebook page. thanks for the company, america. good night. they don't help single moms. hi. hi. what happened to our house last year? it flooded. and the water flooded out. yeah. the red cross arranged the hotel for us. they gave me that break, that leverage, to be able to get it together and... take care of them, you know?

i feel like we've come full circle. like that! this is how i'll do it. sarah: there you go.