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Toforest Johnson

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Prisoner on Alabama's death row
Toforest Johnson
2019 mugshot of Toforest Johnson
BornToforest Onesha Johnson
(1973-02-08) February 8, 1973 (age 51)
Birmingham, Alabama, U.S.
Criminal statusIncarcerated on death row
Conviction(s)Capital murder
Criminal penaltyDeath
Details
VictimsWilliam Hardy, 49
DateJuly 19, 1995
CountryUnited States
State(s)Alabama
Imprisoned atHolman Correctional Facility

Toforest Onesha Johnson (born February 8, 1973) is an American man on death row for the 1995 murder of Jefferson County deputy sheriff William G. Hardy in Alabama. Johnson's case is controversial and his quest for a new trial has attracted widespread support, from prominent lawyers such as the original prosecutor in his case and Alabama's former attorney general to celebrities such as Kim Kardashian.

Johnson was convicted based on the testimony of a single witness, Violet Ellison, who allegedly overheard Johnson confessing to the murder during a jailhouse phone call she eavesdropped on. It was later revealed that Ellison was paid $5000 for her testimony, unbeknownst to Johnson's lawyers. Johnson's lawyers have also presented alibi evidence showing that Johnson and a friend, Ardragus Ford, were together at a nightclub miles away when the murder happened. Many, including current Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr and Johnson's original trial prosecutor Jeff Wallace, former Chief Justice of the Alabama Supreme Court Drayton Nabers, Jr., former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley, and many Alabama legal, civil rights, and faith organizations, have publicly called for Johnson's conviction to be overturned.

Johnson's story is the subject of a critically-acclaimed eight-episode investigative podcast, Earwitness, by Alabama-based journalist Beth Shelburne.

Currently, Johnson remains on death row at the Holman Correctional Facility and his execution date has yet to be scheduled.

Personal life

Toforest Onesha Johnson was born in Birmingham, Alabama on February 8, 1973. Johnson has one younger brother and five children.

Johnson's children have been on the forefront of advocacy for their father to get a new trial. His daughter Akeriya Terry made a series of videos on Instagram sharing her experience growing up and living with her father being sentenced to death. Some of her videos caught the attention of high-profile celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, who shared one of Ms. Terry's videos on her Instagram stories. Johnson's oldest daughter, Shanaye Poole, has also spoken out about her family's advocacy on behalf of her father.

Murder of William G. Hardy

On July 19, 1995, between 12:30 a.m. and 1:00 a.m., a 49-year-old off-duty deputy sheriff, William G. Hardy, was murdered outside a hotel in Birmingham, Alabama.

That night, Barry Rushakoff, the night manager of the hotel, heard two pop-like sounds echoing outside the hotel. He attempted to contact Hardy over the radio to ask Hardy to check the source of the sounds. However, Hardy did not respond. Later, Rushakoff received calls from several hotel guests who reported hearing gunshots in the parking lot. He called 911 to report the shots and request backup for Hardy. Rushakoff again attempted to reach Hardy via radio, but without success. Several guests of the hotel, including Larry Osborne and Annie Colvin (who later became trial witnesses), testified that they were awakened by gunshot sounds that night.

Rushakoff proceeded to the back of the hotel. On his way, he passed a table in the atrium where Hardy frequently sat, noticing the deputy's radio, a cup of coffee, and a cigarette still smoldering in an ashtray. When Rushakoff reached the glass doors at the rear of the hotel, he discovered Hardy's body in the parking lot. He returned to the front desk and called 911 again to report the deputy had been injured. While on the phone with 911, a hotel guest, Leon Colvin (husband of Annie Colvin), approached the desk to ask about car keys that his stepson, Michael Ansley, was supposed to have left for him earlier. Rushakoff gave Colvin the keys, then completed the 911 call and waited for the police. Rushakoff stated that, while waiting, he did not see anyone else in the parking lot except for Hardy, who was later pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. At the time of his death, Hardy was a deputy sheriff in Jefferson County.

Dr. Robert Brissie, chief medical examiner for Jefferson County, conducted the autopsy. Dr. Brissie certified that the cause of Hardy's death was two gunshots. He added that the gunshot wound to Hardy's forehead and the exit hole in both Hardy's hat and back of his head suggested that one of the two bullets was delivered about 12 to 20 inches away from Hardy's forehead and at approximately a 15-degree upward angle. Ballistics evidence confirmed the two shots were fired from the same gun, establishing that there was only one shooter.

At around 4 a.m. on that same day, police stopped a car at a motel in Homewood nearby the crime scene. In the car were four African-American passengers (two men and two women), one of whom was 22-year-old Toforest Johnson and another was his 21-year-old paraplegic friend Ardragus Ford, while the other two were Latanya Henderson and Yolanda Chambers. Johnson was arrested at the scene due to an outstanding traffic warrant and the other three passengers were allowed to go home.

Johnson and three other men, one of whom was Ford, were later arrested for Hardy's murder; the other two were 22-year-old Omar Rahman Berry and 20-year-old Quintez Wilson. The four men were all charged with capital murder, an offense that carries either life imprisonment without the possibility of parole, or the death penalty under Alabama state law. The four were later indicted by a grand jury in March 1996.

Murder trials

Two years later, in late 1997, Toforest Johnson and his friend Ardragus Ford stood trial before separate courts for the murder of William Hardy, while the murder charges against both Omar Berry and Quintez Wilson were dismissed. More than a decade after his release, Wilson died in 2008 from a shooting incident that left two men dead.

Based on the prosecution's case, it was argued in the trials of both Johnson and Ford that both of them were involved in the murder, and that either one of the men had shot Hardy to death. The testimony of Yolanda Chambers showed that on the day in question, she had seen both Ford and Johnson coming face to face with Hardy, and she seen Hardy being shot by either one or both of the men. However, the testimony of Chambers was riddled with countless inconsistencies; she kept changing her story on the identity of the shooter, claiming it was Ford at one point while pinning the blame on Johnson at another point. Chambers even claimed the shooter was neither Johnson nor Ford, but either Wilson or Berry, before she admitted to lying on a few occasions; these multiple inconsistent testimonies led to the prosecution withdrawing all the murder charges against Berry and Wilson while proceeding to prosecute Johnson and Ford in court. As for the reason why Johnson and Ford appeared near the crime scene, Chambers said in one version that they were settling on a drug deal and it was witnessed by Hardy, who was killed as a result, while stating in another version that they had a plan to rob another person on the night Hardy was murdered.

The prosecution also summoned a woman named Violet Ellison as a witness. According to Ellison, she overheard a prison phone call, which concerned a conversation allegedly between Johnson and another inmate, and during the conversation, Johnson allegedly said that he had shot Hardy in the head and admitted to the murder.

In response, Johnson entered his defense and maintained that he was innocent. In his two-tier defense, Johnson put forward one alternative defense, which was that he was present at the scene but did not take part in the shooting or expect the shooting to happen. The second, yet more major defense was that Johnson had an alibi at the time of the murder. According to Johnson, on the date he supposedly murdered Hardy, he was actually in another part of town and was at a nightclub with several friends, including Ford. Some of Johnson's acquaintances were also called to testify to support Johnson's alibi. One notable detail was that Johnson was seen wearing a specific shirt at the nightclub, and that shirt was the same shirt worn by Johnson when he was arrested hours after the murder of Hardy.

On December 11, 1997, Johnson's trial was declared to be a mistrial after the jury deadlocked and unable to reach the verdict, and Johnson's case was later remanded for a re-trial by another jury. Johnson was subsequently convicted of capital murder on August 23, 1998, at the end of his re-trial, and two days later, by a vote of 10–2, the jury recommended the death penalty for Johnson, who was therefore sentenced to death during a formal court hearing on October 30, 1998.

As for Ardragus Ford, his original murder trial also ended with the jury deadlocked on his conviction, which similarly led to the declaration of a mistrial on November 21, 1997. Ford was later granted a re-trial, and he was acquitted in the end after the jury found him not guilty of murder on June 13, 1999.

Appeal process

On June 29, 2001, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed Toforest Johnson's murder conviction and death sentence on direct appeal.

On September 28, 2007, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals reversed the lower court's summary dismissal of Johnson's post-conviction petition and sent the case back to the lower court for a hearing.

On June 14, 2013, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals again reversed the lower court and sent the case back to the trial court for further hearings.

On August 14, 2015, the trial court's denial of Johnson's post-conviction petition was affirmed by the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals.

On June 26, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court, a 5-4 ruling, found in favor of Johnson, and sent the case back to the state courts for re-hearing after the state courts had refused to consider Johnson's claim that prosecutors had failed to disclose that the State's primary witness at trial, Violet Ellison, had been secretly paid $5000 for her testimony.

On April 27, 2018, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals sent the case back to the trial court for a hearing on the prosecutorial misconduct claim.

On May 6, 2022, after the trial court denied his prosecutorial misconduct claim, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the ruling on appeal.

On December 16, 2022, the Alabama Supreme Court denied Johnson's petition for review and declined to hear the case.

Johnson petitioned for review to the U.S. Supreme Court in April 2023. On October 2, 2023, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Johnson's petition.

On November 14, 2024, Johnson filed a new petition to the Jefferson County Circuit Court for a fresh review of his case. The petition is currently pending.

Claims of innocence

Over the years while he was incarcerated on death row, Toforest Johnson's case gradually became controversial due to the fact that he was allegedly innocent of the murder of William Hardy, and the circumstances surrounding his trial and conviction. Mainly, it was debated that Johnson's conviction was unjust since it was based on the testimony of a single witness who pinpointed Johnson as the person she overheard confessing to the murder, and there was a possibility that the witness, Violet Ellison, could have either misheard or concocted the evidence. It was revealed in later years that Ellison received payment of $5,000 from the prosecution for her testimony in 2001, and it was argued that her evidence cannot be relied on in finding Johnson guilty of the murder of William Hardy.

Another major point of Johnson's case was that several witnesses had previously testified that Johnson was not at the scene of crime when Hardy was killed, and that he was at another location when the offence itself happened. A lesser known ground of the controversy was the alleged ineffective legal representation Johnson received during the trial.

On these grounds, Johnson's lawyers argued that Johnson's murder conviction and death sentence were both unsafe to maintain and urged the courts to vacate his conviction and sentence and grant him a re-trial to hear his claims of innocence. Also, civil groups and activists, including the Innocence Project, considered Johnson's case as a wrongful conviction and appealed for a review of Johnson's case to re-determine his guilt. Celebrity Kim Kardashian also supported the efforts to prove Johnson's innocence and requested a re-trial, stating that an innocent man was on death row for a crime he did not commit. More than 400 people gathered at a church event in April 2023 to show support for Johnson on the same date his appeal was first heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Some former jurors of Johnson's trial also expressed their hopes that Johnson could be acquitted and felt that they should not have found him guilty of William Hardy's murder.

The case of Johnson also garnered rare significant support from legal professionals, who expressed concerns that he was possibly innocent of the crime. Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr, a longtime supporter of capital punishment, submitted a brief in 2020, supporting Johnson's request for a new trial. Although Carr expressed no stance on whether Johnson was innocent or not, he was concerned that Johnson did not receive a fair trial and felt that using a single witness's testimony to convict Johnson gave rise to grave concerns that Johnson was likely wrongfully convicted of murder, and even the original lead prosecutor of Johnson's trial had earlier told Carr of his concerns regarding Johnson's possible innocence. Carr reiterated in his brief that the duty of the prosecution was "not merely to secure convictions, but to seek justice". Carr reiterated his support for Johnson in December 2023, although he revealed his concern about the chances of securing a new trial for Johnson. In May 2024, Carr once again urged the judicial system to uphold the ends of justice by granting Johnson a new trial, citing that the evidence of the prosecution witness Ellison contradicted the objective evidence and testimonies of the alibi witnesses supporting Johnson's defense.

In March 2021, former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley, former Chief Justices Sonny Hornsby and Drayton Nabers, and several former judges and prosecutors submitted briefs to support their efforts for a new trial for Johnson, stating that the evidence against Johnson should not have been sufficient to warrant his conviction and urged the courts to re-investigate his case. However, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall does not support the need for a new trial for Johnson.

Despite this support, Johnson's request for a new trial was rejected by the courts from 2022 to 2023, although he still could appeal to the courts at that point.

See also

References

  1. "Alabama Inmates Currently on Death Row". Alabama Department of Corrections. Archived from the original on October 24, 2012. Retrieved November 26, 2024.
  2. "Alabama man languishes on death row despite mounting signs of innocence". MSNBC.com. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  3. Darrington, Patrick (2024-01-01). "Kim Kardashian: Toforest Johnson is an innocent man". Alabama Political Reporter. Retrieved 2024-12-29.
  4. Balko, Radley (September 5, 2019). "An Illusion of Justice: The Baffling Conviction and Death Sentence of Toforest Johnson Reveal a Broken System". Washington Post. Retrieved December 28, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  5. Shelburne, Beth (2019-09-11). "Money for Justice?". https://www.wbrc.com. Retrieved 2024-12-29. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  6. Shelburne, Beth (October 3, 2023). "Earwitness Podcast, Episode 4: Witness or Defendant". Lava for Good. Retrieved December 28, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  7. Shelburne, Beth (2020-06-12). "EXCLUSIVE: District attorney urges new trial for man on Alabama's death row". https://www.wbrc.com. Retrieved 2024-12-28. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  8. News, Alabama Daily (2022-04-20). "Nabers: Why Is Toforest Johnson Still on Alabama's Death Row?". Alabama Daily News. Retrieved 2024-12-28. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)
  9. Gould, Cynthia (2023-09-29). "'He's innocent': Legal experts urge U.S. Supreme Court to review death row inmate's case". WBMA. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
  10. Shelburne, Beth (2021-03-09). "Former Alabama Attorney General and Chief Justice Support New Trial in Death Row Case". https://www.wbrc.com. Retrieved 2024-12-28. {{cite web}}: External link in |website= (help)
  11. "Has an innocent man sat on Alabama's Death Row for 20 years?". Alabama Local News. September 6, 2019.
  12. "The 30 best true crime podcasts of all time, ranked". EW.com. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
  13. Alabama death row case center of new podcast 'Earwitness'. 2023-09-18. Retrieved 2024-12-28 – via www.wbrc.com.
  14. "'He's an innocent man who's been on death row for years': Community leaders rally for Toforest Johnson". WVTM. October 14, 2024.
  15. Shelburne, Beth (October 31, 2023). "Earwitness podcast; Episode 8: Bondage to the Law". Lava for Good. Retrieved December 28, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  16. Oselen, Bryce (2024-10-14). "'He's an innocent man who's been on death row for years': Community leaders rally for Toforest Johnson". WVTM. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
  17. "Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
  18. Staff, ASHLEY GOODEN | WBMA (2021-03-09). "Friends of the court file briefs in support of Alabama man on death row for 24 years". WBMA. Retrieved 2024-12-28.
  19. ^ Johnson v. State , Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals (United States).
  20. Balko, Radley (September 5, 2019). "An Illusion of Justice". Washington Post. Retrieved December 28, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  21. Shelburne, Beth (September 19, 2023). "Earwitness Podcast, Episode 2: Don't Know Diddly". Lava for Good. Retrieved December 28, 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
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  23. "Four men charged in deputy's slaying". The Tuscaloosa News. June 28, 1995.
  24. "4 indicted in deputy's death". Times Daily. March 24, 1996.
  25. "Inconsistencies may bring freedom". Gadsden Times. August 11, 1997.
  26. "Man found dead was suspect in death of Jefferson County sheriff's deputy". Alabama Local News. July 7, 2008.
  27. "Inconsistency in testimony cited". Times Daily. August 11, 1997.
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  29. ^ "Whitmire: Give Toforest Johnson a new trial. Or better, a pardon. Now". Alabama Local News. March 12, 2021.
  30. "Mistrial declared". The Tuscaloosa News. December 11, 1997.
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  43. "Alabama Supreme Court denies retrial for man former AG says is 'trapped on death row'". Montgomery Advertiser. December 19, 2022.
  44. "Lawyers for Alabama Death Row inmate Toforest Johnson appeal to U.S. Supreme Court". Alabama Local News. April 17, 2023.
  45. "U.S. Supreme Court declines to review case of Alabama death row inmate Toforest Johnson". AL.com. October 2, 2023.
  46. "Alabama death row inmate Toforest Johnson seeks new hearing on conviction". Alabama Reflector. November 18, 2024.
  47. ^ "Jefferson County judge considers how witness reward affected death row case". Alabama Local News. December 26, 2019.
  48. ^ "Claiming innocence, Alabama death row inmate seeks new trial". Associated Press. September 10, 2022.
  49. "State needs effective attorneys if death penalty is to exist". The Tuscaloosa News. January 25, 2007.
  50. "Innocence Project asks Supreme Court to review case of Alabama Death Row inmate Toforest Johnson". Alabama Local News. May 22, 2023.
  51. "Kim Kardashian: Alabama Death Row inmate Toforest Johnson 'in prison for a crime he did not commit'". Alabama Local News. December 28, 2023.
  52. "Gathering for Alabama death row inmate Toforest Johnson draws 400 people". Alabama Reflector. April 17, 2023.
  53. "Op-ed: I voted to send a man to death row. It turns out he is innocent". Alabama Local News. April 22, 2024.
  54. "With much backing, Alabama death row inmate claims innocence, seeks new trial". CBS News. September 9, 2022.
  55. "Comeback Town: Jeffco Sheriff deputy murdered; a doozy you may not know about". Alabama Local News. December 24, 2023.
  56. "Alabama county's DA urges new trial for death row inmate". Associated Press. June 14, 2020.
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  58. "Jeffco DA files amicus brief supporting new trial for Alabama death row inmate Toforest Johnson". Alabama Local News. June 12, 2020.
  59. "Jefferson County DA uncertain new trial for Toforest Johnson could go forward". Alabama Reflector. December 4, 2023.
  60. "'Justice demands' new trial for death row inmate, Alabama district attorney says". Associated Press. May 20, 2024.
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  62. "14 former judges, prosecutors urge new trial for Alabama death row inmate, citing 'irregularities' in conviction". USA Today. March 11, 2021.
  63. "Alabama argues Toforest Johnson case isn't of 'extraordinary public importance'". Alabama Local News. June 20, 2023.
  64. "Alabama Supreme Court denies new trial for death row inmate". Associated Press. December 16, 2022.
  65. "U.S. Supreme Court won't review Toforest Johnson case". Alabama Reflector. October 2, 2023.
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