disappointment for ryan. no new trial. his conviction will stand. it broke me, in a way, because i allowed myself to get hopeful. reporter: but ryan s father does not accept defeat. and out of the blue he s found a new ally. i like target shooting. i find it relaxing. reporter: kathleen zellner doesn t even live in missouri. she s a high-profile attorney in chicago who also saw the 48 hours report. a case like this to me is just consuming. reporter: she agrees to take ryan s case pro bono, but she s worried. my big concern is that i came into the case so late, i m not sure that the case is salvageable. reporter: wait a minute, kathleen. you say you truly believe ryan ferguson had nothing to do with this murder, that he s completely innocent. but you re not absolutely sure you can get him out? right, because the case has just progressed procedurally so far. reporter: zellner believes the entire case was based on a faulty premise. the police came up with
our poofy cherry blossoms. if we do get it, it will be gorgeous but i don t think it will be a big deal. it is chilly this morning. get ready to layer up a little bit if you are getting ready for the saturday morning routine that takes you outside, all quiet, chilly day ahead, 33 degrees at reagan national airport. lots of clear skies to our north. the clouds to the south will be overspreading the area today. we will call it partly sunny, we will hold off on any precipitation until late in the overnight. these counties shaded in purple represent a winter storm watch, not until 10:00 tonight and 4:00 tomorrow. it doesn t include much of the metropolitan area, down towards harrisonburg and more field, west virginia. we are headed into the middle and upper 40s this afternoon. no rain or snow today. getting an early snow on the blossoms. you will be in more shape. awfully thrilly for what people expect or what they want in march. especially with the beautiful, poofy flowers.
role and the cooler air is to the north of us and that is settling in across our area before it s said and done and let s look at radar. we re going to show you the major system to the south of us. you can see where the low pressure system is and there to the south, they re dealing with severe storms right now. plenty of watches and warnings with heavy rainfall and you can see a lot of lightning in the system as well and that is that ma system moving towards our area and let s look at true view and we re going to show you a closer look at the precipitation as it moves through and there is some mixed precipitation and snow in parts of illinois and indiana with a swath of precipitation from that area all the way to the south as we showed on you radar and so, all of this moisture is moving directly to us and what we re talking about is right now, a winter advisory that is in effect, snow is expected to move in in the overnight hours and this is from 4:00 a.m. sunday morning unti
today is saturday, march 26th, winter really over? today is saturday, march 26th, 2011. captions paid for by nbc-universal television good morning. welcome to today. i m lester holt. and i m amy robach and i m really sick of putting on gloves and hats and scarves. it s spring. dude, where did you put my spring. we re just a week away from april, but the snow and bitter cold make it more like early january. we know it s going to end. we think it s going to end. but when? we ll get to the weather in a moment and we re certainly hoping for good news. also coming up, the search for a missing honor student. the north carolina student vanished three days after christmas and now police are struggling to turn up any heeds as her family endures the pain. we ll have an update. we ll also head to italy where amanda knox is back in court convicted of killing her british roommate. this morning the prosecution is putting their key witness on the stand. we re live in italy with
to grow. a bunch of events going on down here today. a marathon that will be running not far from here. you do need jackets and perhaps gloves. i can t remember wearing gloves at a cherry blossom festival kickoff. there is also a chill in the hearts of those attending this year s festival. i want to step aside. there is indeed a certain solemn knit to this year ace festival because of the devastation in japan. last week, hundreds took part in a candlelight vil vigil. a lot has happened over the ensuing 99 years. this annual blooming significesa peaceful state of relations. you do get that sense, very serene, beautiful. is it everything you expected? it is more, really gorgeous. reporter: we are getting the organizers of this year s festival say they expect the peak period to be sometime between march 29th and april 3rd so you still get time to get down here and see the peak of all of this. another annual event is a yoga demonstration, over by the sylvan theater. this