Alabama governor spares death row inmate as doubts grow over evidence in 1995 murder conviction

The governor of Alabama has commuted the sentence of a death row inmate to life in prison without parole, after the local district attorney and several former judges and prosecutors raised concerns about his conviction. Governor Kay Ivey announced on Tuesday that Toforest Johnson's death sentence would be replaced with life imprisonment. Johnson was convicted of the 1995 murder of Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff William Hardy, but he has long maintained his innocence.

In a statement, Ivey said that when Johnson's case was presented to her, she had concerns that there was not enough direct evidence to carry out the most serious punishment, death. She stressed that the decision was not a determination of innocence, but a recognition that the circumstances justified commuting the sentence to life without the possibility of parole. Johnson remains incarcerated at the Holman Correctional Facility.

The concerns behind the decision came from the current Jefferson County district attorney and a number of former judges and prosecutors who had questioned the conviction. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall had urged the governor last week to reject the clemency request and to respect the jury's decision and the rulings of the courts that reviewed the case. Despite that appeal, the governor chose to spare Johnson's life.

The killing took place on 19 July 1995. Hardy was shot twice in the head while working off-duty security outside a hotel in Birmingham. Johnson has said he was on the other side of the city when the shooting happened, and his supporters say credible witnesses place him elsewhere at the time.

One of Johnson's attorneys, Ty Alper, said he and his client were grateful to the governor for diligently reviewing the case and acting to spare an innocent man from execution. But he said the fight would continue: in his words, Johnson is innocent, it is now up to the courts to overturn his conviction and grant him a new trial, and they will keep fighting until he is home with his family.

The most contested part of the case concerns a key prosecution witness. At Johnson's 1998 trial, the woman testified that she had been eavesdropping on a three-way phone call when she heard a man she believed was Johnson admitting to the shooting. She later received a $5,000 reward in 2001 for her assistance in the case. Johnson's lawyers say the state withheld evidence of that monetary incentive for her testimony.

Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr, elected in 2018, is among those backing a new trial. In a court filing in 2024, Carr wrote that the evidence in the case had unravelled over 20 years. He said credible alibi witnesses place Johnson in another area at the time of the shooting, and that there are multiple reasons to doubt the key prosecution witness and her account of overhearing a confession.

Support for a new trial has come from many other quarters as well. Former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley, former Alabama Supreme Court chief justices Sonny Hornsby and Drayton Nabers, and other former judges and prosecutors have submitted briefs or written editorials backing a retrial. Johnson's push has drawn national attention and support from prominent lawyers, including the original prosecutor in his case, according to his supporters.

Commutations are not new for Ivey. Since becoming governor in 2017 she has commuted the death sentences of three inmates, while also overseeing 27 executions during her tenure. Her term will end in January, as she is term-limited and cannot run for re-election.

The commutation saves Johnson's life but does not free him. His lawyers say their years-long legal battle to overturn the conviction and win a new trial will continue, making the governor's decision a major turning point in the case rather than its final resolution.