Source: NBC News
“Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of a death row inmate after a number of former public officials, and the current district attorney, raised doubts about his conviction. The Republican governor said she was commuting Toforest Johnson’s death sentence to life in prison without parole. Johnson was convicted of the 1995 murder of Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff William Hardy. Johnson has long maintained he is innocent. … Hardy was shot twice in the head while working off-duty security at a hotel. Johnson has maintained he was on the other side of town at the time of the shooting. … The key prosecution witness at Johnson’s 1998 trial testified that, while eavesdropping on a phone call, she heard a man she believed was Johnson admitting to the crime. She was paid $5,000 in 2001 for her testimony, and Johnson’s lawyers argue that the state withheld evidence of monetary motivation for the testimony.” (10/20/26)