John Nolley Jr. was labeled a murderer for 20 years — until Wednesday.
The 44-year-old husband and father of four was declared innocent in a Tarrant County courtroom Wednesday.
"I've been waiting on this day for so long," Nolley said as he walked out of the courtroom.
Nolley was released from prison in May 2016 after the Tarrant County district attorney's office said he had been wrongfully convicted. And in May, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals overturned Nolley's 1998 murder conviction.
But his name wasn't cleared until Wednesday when District Attorney Sharen Wilson said Nolley did not murder Sharon McLane in 1996.
Nolley was friends with McLane but had maintained he didn't kill her for the 18 years he spent in prison.
She was found stabbed to death in her Bedford apartment in December 1996. Nolley was arrested in August 1997 and convicted the next year.
That conviction was largely based on the testimony of a jailhouse informant who claimed Nolley had confessed to the murder. But that informant lied.
Wilson said in court Wednesday that investigators have interviewed 70 witnesses since Nolley was released from prison in 2016. They have also completed 100 forensic tests.
There was enough evidence from those interviews and tests to declare Nolley innocent, Wilson said, but McLane's real killer has not been found.
"Our job to seek justice is to convict the guilty but to also help the innocent go free," Wilson said of prosecutors.
Wilson declined to comment further on the case, saying Bedford police are still investigating. The case remains open, and authorities are looking at several suspects.
Though Nolley's conviction had been overturned, he remained indicted until this week. Wilson dismissed the murder charge Wednesday.
"I apologize to you for what happened to you," State District Judge Louis Sturns said after he signed the order for dismissal.
The Court of Criminal Appeals still has to declare Nolley innocent, after which he will be eligible for compensation from the state.
It's a fate far different than what Nolley faced following his conviction and life sentence two decades ago.
"I always knew that wasn't how my life was supposed to end," he said.
Nolley said watching his mother age while he was behind bars "kept me on my knees praying."
While in prison, he appealed his conviction without an attorney. His family had run out of money to hire anyone.
The Innocence Project then took on Nolley's case, which has since led to state legislation that requires prosecutors to get more information about jailhouse informants like the one used in Nolley's trial.
Jailhouse informants are the "worst kind of witness in our criminal justice system," said Nina Morrison, a senior staff attorney with the Innocence Project.
Morrison has worked on Nolley's case for 12 years. She said it's challenging to get defense attorneys and prosecutors to keep working on a case as complicated as Nolley's for so many years.
She credited the district attorney's office and the Bedford Police Department for continuing to investigate McLane's slaying after Nolley's conviction was overturned.
"We weren't able to hand them the real killer on a silver platter. We don't still to this day know for sure who did it," Morrison said.
McLane's family did not attend Wednesday's court hearing, and Morrison said prosecutors have kept them updated on Nolley's innocence and the investigation.
"To find out all these years later that the wrong person was in prison this whole time and the real killer may still be out there, there's just no words," she said of the McLane family.
For Nolley, Wednesday's hearing helps him move on with his life. He said he has had trouble getting full-time work since his release from prison because the murder charge and conviction were still hanging over his head.
Nolley has since reunited with his adult children and has had another child, John Nolley III.
And he has started a lawn service business. He said he is moving on with his life.
"John is extremely happy, blessed, at peace," Nolley said.
