Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday, October 20, commuted the death sentence of Toforest Johnson, who was convicted of killing Jefferson County sheriff's deputy William Hardy in 1995. Johnson will now serve life in prison without parole. Ivey said she "had concerns there was not enough direct evidence to carry out the most serious punishment, death," the Associated Press reported.
The governor was careful about what her decision does not do. "My decision is not a determination of innocence," she said. Johnson's conviction stands.
A deputy's killing and a single witness
Hardy was killed on July 19, 1995, while working off-duty security at the Crown Sterling Suites hotel in Birmingham, the Alabama Reflector reported. He had gone to check on a noise in the parking lot, and the AP reported he was shot twice in the head.
Police arrested Johnson, Ardargus Ford and four other men. Charges against three were dropped, and co-defendant Ardargus Ford was acquitted at his second trial. Johnson's first trial ended in a mistrial, according to a case history on Wikipedia. At his second trial in 1998, he was convicted and jurors recommended death by a 10 to 2 vote.
The case rested heavily on Violet Ellison, who testified that she overheard a man identifying himself as "Toforest" admit to the shooting during a three-way phone call. Prosecutors did not tell the defense that the state paid Ellison a $5,000 reward, the Reflector reported. Johnson has always said he is innocent and was across town that night, and several witnesses have said in affidavits that they saw him elsewhere.
Doubts from inside the prosecutor's office
What sets the case apart is who has questioned it. Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr, elected in 2018, wrote in a 2024 court filing that the "evidence in this case has unraveled over 20 years," the AP reported. Former Attorney General Bill Baxley, former Alabama Chief Justices Sonny Hornsby and Drayton Nabers, and several former judges and prosecutors have backed a new trial.
So far the courts have not granted relief. State appeals courts upheld the conviction, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the issue of Ellison's payment. In November 2024, Johnson's lawyers filed a new challenge citing a 2020 investigation by Carr's office.
Attorney General Steve Marshall opposed clemency. In an October 16 letter, he urged Ivey to reject the request and "respect the jury's decision," the AP reported, a letter TheGrio also described. His office also opposes Johnson's request for a new court hearing, the Reflector reported.
None of the reports reviewed for this story included a statement from Hardy's family. His killing, more than 30 years ago, remains at the center of a case that has moved through four trials and decades of appeals.
Commutation, pardon or exoneration
The three words mean very different things. A commutation reduces a punishment but leaves the conviction in place. A pardon, by contrast, absolves the individual of guilt. An exoneration, as the National Registry of Exonerations defines it, occurs when a convicted person is officially cleared after new evidence, through a finding of innocence, a full pardon, an acquittal or dismissed charges. That is what happened to the five men in the Central Park jogger case.
Johnson has received only the first. "Toforest Johnson is innocent. Now it is up to the courts to overturn his conviction and grant him a new trial," his lawyer, Ty Alper, said. "We will keep fighting until he is home with his family."
Ivey has overseen 27 executions and has now commuted three death sentences, the AP reported. The Reflector noted she spared Rocky Myers in 2025 over questions about his guilt and commuted the sentence of Charles "Sonny" Burton in March.
Undisclosed witness payments and a prosecutor's office that doubts its own verdict make it the kind of case the Two Taps legal panel takes apart on the show.
Two Taps News stories summarize reporting and the analysis discussed on Two Taps and Friends. They are not legal advice. Read our standards.
