Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday reduced the death sentence of a death-row inmate whose conviction has drawn increasing scrutiny from former public officials and Jefferson County’s current district attorney, who have questioned whether the case was properly decided. raised doubts
Ivey, a Republican, commuted Toforest Johnson’s sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Johnson was convicted in the 1995 killing of Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff William Hardy, but he has consistently maintained that he did not commit the crime.
“After reviewing Mr. Johnson’s case, I was concerned that it lacked sufficient direct evidence to justify the ultimate punishment of death,” Ivey said in a statement. “This decision does not declare him innocent. It reflects my conclusion that the circumstances warrant changing his sentence to life imprisonment without parole.”
During her tenure as governor, Ivey has presided over 27 executions and has now commuted the sentences of three people on Alabama’s death row. Before announcing the decision, she said she informed Attorney General Steve Marshall and Beverly Hardy, a designated member of the deputy’s family.
“Because capital punishment is such an important tool for Alabama, it must be applied with the utmost care and seriousness,” Ivey said. “Mr. Johnson will spend the rest of his life imprisoned for the senseless killing of Deputy Sheriff William Hardy. There is no question that he is being held accountable.”
Hardy was working a private security assignment at a hotel when he was shot twice in the head. Johnson has said he was across town when the shooting occurred, offering an alibi that has remained central to his claim of innocence.
Ty Alper, one of Johnson’s attorneys, thanked Ivey for conducting what he called a careful review of the case and for taking steps that prevented what the defense described as the execution of an innocent man. He said the legal effort to challenge the conviction will continue.
“Toforest Johnson is innocent,” Alper said. “The courts must now overturn his conviction and give him a new trial. We will continue fighting until he can return home to his family.”
Johnson’s attorneys have spent years seeking a new trial in a case that has received national attention and later became the focus of a podcast. Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr, elected in 2018, has backed Johnson’s request. In a 2024 court filing, Carr wrote that “the evidence in this case has unraveled over 20 years.”
Carr said that credible alibi witnesses put Johnson somewhere else when Hardy was killed. He also cited several reasons to question the prosecution’s most important witness, a woman who said she overheard Johnson confess during a three-way phone call while secretly listening in.
At Johnson’s 1998 trial, the witness testified that she heard a man she believed to be Johnson acknowledge the killing while eavesdropping on the call. She received $5,000 for her testimony in 2001. Johnson’s lawyers contend prosecutors failed to disclose evidence that could have shown she had a financial incentive to testify.
The push for a new trial has attracted support from former judges, prosecutors and other legal officials who have raised concerns about the conviction more than two decades later. Among those backing Johnson are former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley, former Chief Justices Sonny Hornsby and Drayton Nabers, along with several former judges and prosecutors who have filed briefs or published editorials supporting another trial.
