DA Weirich responds to article critical of Noura Jackson case

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) - Noura Jackson was 18 years old when her mother was fatally stabbed 50 times in her East Memphis home in 2005. Jackson was 30 years old when she walked out of prison.

A lengthy New York Times article is scheduled to be published in this Sunday's magazine, much of which focuses a critical eye on Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich.

"I haven't read it yet," Weirich said. "Like I said, I saw the intent of this article was not to get the truth out, to get the full story about what prosecutors do."

The article highlights the Noura Jackson murder trial and the headline reads, "She was convicted of killing her mother. Prosecutors withheld the evidence that would have freed her."

Weirich said the author of the magazine article had an agenda.

"To push an agenda of pro-crime, anti-police, anti-prosecutors," she said.

The article points out the mistakes made during the trial that led the Supreme Court to say that prosecutors violated Jackson's constitutional rights. That is what led to Jackson eventually getting out of prison on a lesser charge.

"Since 1990, 147 cases have been reversed because of something somebody did," Weirich said. "Eight of those cases were because of things this office did or didn't do and that counts the Noura Jackson opinion twice."

Out of those eight cases, Weirich pointed out that two of those cases were tried while she was in college, but the reversals happened over the past few years. She added that most of the most of the reversals had nothing to do with her office, but were, instead, judge's errors.

However, she acknowledges that the article makes her look bad.

"You look pretty corrupt," WMC5's Janice Broach said during a one-on-one interview with the district attorney.

To which Weirich responded, "Sure, we all do and I think what has got to be part of the message is the truth, the facts and the truth about my career, 26 years at the prosecutor's office."

Copyright 2017 WMC Action News 5. All rights reserved.