Everyday Injustice Podcast Episode 250: (Wrongly) Convicted on “Earwitness” Testimony

Everyday Injustice

Joining Everyday Injustice Podcast this week is Beth Shelburne, a journalist and writer with more than 25 years of experience. In 2023, a podcast series she created, reported and wrote called “Earwitness,” the story of Tofest Johnson. As described: Toforest Johnson is a father, a son, a brother. He was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama. He has been on Alabama’s death row since 1998 for a crime he had nothing to do with. He was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1995 murder of Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy William G. Hardy. According to more than 10 witnesses, Toforest was across town at the exact time Deputy Hardy was killed. There is no physical evidence linking him to the crime in any way. Prosecutors presented no eyewitnesses. And he has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested. Prosecutors could not make up their mind about who committed the crime. At five different court hearings, they presented five different stories about what they claimed happened. The State’s case against Toforest hinged on the testimony of one witness: a woman who did not know him and had never met him claimed to hear Toforest confess to the murder in an eavesdropped phone call. She was paid $5000 for her testimony, a fact that was not finally revealed to Toforest’s attorneys until almost two decades later, when prosecutors revealed paperwork they said had been “misfiled.” Listen as Beth Shelburne describes in detail the incredible story of Toforest Johnson, convicted on “earwitness” testimony.