John,

In 1998, a prosecutor in Birmingham, Alabama asked jurors to convict Toforest Johnson and sentence him to death — and they did. Now, more than 25 years later, that same prosecutor is calling for a new trial, and yet Toforest remains on death row today and is at risk of being executed for a crime he did not commit.

On July 19, 1995, Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was shot and killed in the parking lot of a Birmingham hotel in the early hours of the morning. Police arrested and charged five different young Black men in connection with the crime — but only Toforest Johnson was convicted and sentenced to death, despite at least 10 eyewitnesses placing him four miles away from the scene of the crime.

Please, take a quick moment to read these six things you need to know about Toforest’s case, and then spread the word on social media — we can’t let Alabama execute an innocent person.

Toforest has consistently maintained his innocence, but was sentenced to death in 1998 despite no physical evidence or eyewitness testimony connecting him to the crime scene.

The State’s key evidence was the testimony of an “earwitness” who claimed that she eavesdropped on a three-way phone call and heard a man, who said his name was Toforest, confess to the crime. The two didn’t know each other and had never even met, but her testimony became the centerpiece of the State’s case against him.

Then in 2019, after denying it for 17 years, the State finally disclosed that it secretly paid the witness $5,000 for her testimony. After hearing this news, three jurors from the trial came forward to say that they would never have voted to convict if they had known that the witness expected payment for her testimony.

All of the evidence points to Toforest’s innocence — that’s why we’re fighting to stop his execution and get him the justice he deserves. The Innocence Project has filed two amicus briefs in support of a new trial for Toforest, one in the U.S. Supreme Court and one in Alabama’s Jefferson County Circuit Court.

But we aren’t the only ones who are showing support for Toforest. Democrats and Republicans from across Alabama — including three former Alabama Supreme Court justices and two former Alabama governors — have called for a new trial in this case. Even the original trial prosecutor, Jeff Wallace, and the elected Jefferson County District Attorney, Danny Carr, have joined the calls for a new trial.

While there is no date currently set for Toforest’s execution, we can’t sit around and wait for it to happen. Will you read more about the case and then share his story on social media so this injustice does not go unnoticed?

Thank you so much for your support,

— The Innocence Project Team