Gov. Kay Ivey of Alabama on Tuesday commuted the death sentence of a 53-year-old man convicted in the 1995 killing of a sheriff’s deputy, citing “not enough direct evidence to carry out the most serious punishment.”
It is the third time that Ms. Ivey, a Republican, has commuted the death sentence of a prisoner. Alabama has executed 27 prisoners since she became governor in 2017.
The man whose death sentence was commuted on Tuesday, Toforest Johnson, was convicted of capital murder in 1998 in connection with the killing of William G. Hardy, a deputy in Jefferson County, Ala., who was fatally shot while working a security job at a Birmingham hotel.
Mr. Johnson has maintained his innocence. He said he was at a nightclub on the night of the shooting in July 1995.
Mr. Johnson’s conviction largely relied on the testimony of a woman, Violet Ellison, who said during his trial that she had heard him confess to the crime during a three-way phone call. Ms. Ellison received a $5,000 reward from the state for her help. That information was not initially disclosed and was revealed to Mr. Johnson’s lawyers two decades later. His lawyers also noted that no physical evidence had ever linked him to the crime.
Mr. Johnson’s lawyers say jurors never heard from witnesses who could have corroborated his whereabouts during the crime.
Ms. Ivey said Mr. Johnson would be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.
“My decision is not a determination of innocence,” Ms. Ivey said, “but a recognition that the circumstances of this case justify commuting his death sentence.”
Ms. Ivey’s decision came weeks after the botched execution of Christa Pike in Tennessee, which renewed debates about the effectiveness of lethal injections and about capital punishment.
Mr. Johnson’s case gained national attention after becoming the subject of a popular podcast released in 2023. Danny Carr, the district attorney in Jefferson County, helped spur a re-examination of the case in 2020 when he voiced concerns about the prosecution and asked for a new trial.
Steve Marshall, the attorney general of Alabama, declined to consider the request. Lawyers in the attorney general’s office wrote in 2022 that “Mr. Carr’s opinion that Johnson should receive a new trial is just that, his opinion.”
In 2024, Mr. Carr released the findings of a post-conviction review, which found several flaws in the investigation and prosecution of Mr. Johnson. For instance, credible witnesses placed Mr. Johnson elsewhere at the time of the killing, the review found, and Mr. Johnson had said he was at Tee’s Place, a nightclub across town.
In 2014, Jeff Wallace, who was the lead prosecutor in Mr. Johnson’s case, acknowledged in a court hearing that the case against Mr. Johnson was “not very strong because it depended on the testimony of Violet Ellison,” records show. Six years later, Mr. Wallace announced his support for a new trial for Mr. Johnson.
Ms. Ellison had also served as a key witness for the state in other criminal cases around the same time that Mr. Johnson’s case was pending. One resulted in an acquittal, and the other was dismissed before trial.
“A thorough review and investigation of the entire case leaves no confidence in the integrity of Johnson’s conviction,” Mr. Carr wrote in a 2024 brief expressing his support for a new trial, noting that “the interest of justice” demanded it.
“The foundation of this conviction has disintegrated,” he added.
Ty Alper, one of Mr. Johnson’s lawyers, said in a statement Tuesday that his team was “grateful to Governor Ivey for diligently reviewing Toforest’s case and taking action to spare an innocent man from execution.”
Since the 1970s, more than 75 people have been executed in Alabama, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, which collects data on executions. Only a handful of states have had more executions in that time, including Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri.
Mr. Alper said it was up to the courts to overturn Mr. Johnson’s conviction and grant him a new trial. His case is now pending in a county court.
“We will keep fighting until he is home with his family,” he said.
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