October 17, 2023 • 45 mins
Episode 6 of 8
Beth unravels disturbing revelations about the State’s handling of Violet Ellison, the earwitness whose testimony forms the backbone of the case against Toforest. She tracks the tenacious investigative work of Toforest’s lawyers to prove Ellison was paid $5000 for her testimony - in secret. After years of denying that a reward was ever paid, prosecutors are finally forced to disclose the truth – almost 20 years after Toforest was convicted and sentenced to death.
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http://www.ToforestJohnson.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Last time on ear witness Bally that.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Was walking that door, scanting up on this table and
say what she said. We got a full table.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Now we got all the evidence we.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Need this Alison, would you tell us about the information
that you have for us.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Yes, my daughter to use her three way to call for.
Speaker 5 (00:36):
His homeboy, and he named the old name is to
Barge Johnson. We had a weak case.
Speaker 6 (00:42):
It's based on testimony in one witness.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
The only evidence supposedly they had against was this ear
witness who had never heard him speak before, who had
no idea who he was.
Speaker 6 (00:55):
This case is all about alternative worlds that are in
conflict with each other and in conflict with truth, and
in conflict with what our justice system stands for.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
We forget sometime that there was a third person on
that phone who toltally discredit to what this lady says.
She heard, you know what I mean? And now how close,
how much closer can you get than that?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Why did the jury believe this woman who eavesdrop on
the call over you who actually had on the call.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
I don't understand. I never understood that. You know, the
victim's family deserve to know what happened to their loved one,
but they get no justice, no peace out of a
wrongful conviction, you know, And this is simply a case
of does anybody all do.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Do you remember the first time you met him?
Speaker 7 (02:04):
At you?
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Ty Alper was just starting out his legal career at
the Southern Center for Human Rights when he met to
Forest Johnson. To Forest was one of the first people
on death row that Ty'd been assigned to represent. In
January of two thousand and three, ty gets into one
of the old volvos that the Southern Center had in
(02:27):
their parking lot in Atlanta and drives four hours south
to Holman Prison and at Moore, Alabama.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
The first time I met him was down at Holman.
I was by myself and well, I was going to
go down and make sure that he was okay with
us representing him and to sort of tell him where
his case was.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Tye is twenty nine years old, and here's what he knows.
To Forest Johnson is just eight months old than he is,
and he's been on death row for over four years
for a crime he says he did not commit. When
(03:14):
ty finally gets inside the prison, he's taken to a
room called the visiting yard, but it isn't a yard
at all. It looks like a middle school cafeteria surrounded
by plexiglass. Outside the plexiglass, correctional officers and men in
prison uniforms, white slacks, white shirt with Alabama Department of
(03:35):
Corrections stamped on the back are walking by. Inside, there's
no ac and the sad attempt of cooling the room
is left to metal fans that hang in the corners
to forrest sits at a table in a plastic chair
across from Ty. Ty tries to talk quietly so he
(03:56):
doesn't disturb other lawyers working with their clients on the yard,
but loud enough to be heard over the roar of
the fans.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And I remember saying to him, you know, mister Johnson,
I want you to know we're at the very early
stages of your appeals. There's many rounds of appeals to go.
We're going to file a petition in the US Supreme Court.
Then we're going to go back into state court. If
we lose there, we're going to go back into federal court,
and all this could take many years. And he just
(04:28):
started crying, and I assumed that he was upset because
I knew that he had claimed that he was claiming
he was innocent, and I assumed that he was upset
that this was going to take so long, and I
asked him what was wrong, and he said that he
was so happy because he had just assumed that they
could come any minute and take him to be executed.
(04:50):
And it was just the thing that struck me the most,
because not only had he been screwed over in pretty
much every possible way you can be, but nobody was
telling anything about what was going on in this case.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
But to Forrest's days without a lawyer to fight for
him are over. It's now up to Tie and the
team of lawyers at the Southern Center to do what
no one has done before, thoroughly investigate to Forrest's conviction,
a conviction that hinged on the word and credibility of
a single witness, Violet Ellison. I'm Beth Shelburne. This is
(05:34):
ear Witness, Chapter six Misfiled. After Ty leaves Holman prison,
(06:09):
he and the rest of Taforest's new legal team go
through the case. They need to understand how their new
client ended up on death row. They hear about to
Forest's alibi that he was at Tea's place when Deputy
Hardy was shot. They learn about Yolanda Chambers changing stories.
They read how the state presented conflicting theories at different trials.
(06:34):
Now it's clear to the legal team to Forest Johnson
did not kill Deputy Hardy. The state's case completely revolved
around Violet Ellison's testimony.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So we knew that that was a potentially fruitful area
to investigate because she was the state's whole case.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
They need to figure out whether they can challenge Violet
Ellison's testimony. If they can show that it wasn't reliable,
they can argue that to Forrest deserves a new trial.
So they need to know why did Violet Ellison come
forward in the first place. Prosecutor Jeff Wallace told two
(07:16):
juries that Violet was a credible witness, someone who overheard
to Forrest Johnson admit to the crime, and she came
forward because it was the right thing to do. But
there were other reasons Violet Ellison might have come forward.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
We knew the reward was offered because it was all
over the papers, but we didn't know who got it
or if Violet Elison got it.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
The reward was not a secret. It was mentioned in
press releases and reported on TV news.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So the next step was okay. Well, were there questions
about her credibility that the jury never heard, and an
obvious one was what was she paid for her testimony?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
If Violet Ellison knew about the reward money before trial,
or even if she had qualified for the reward, the
jury should have been told this when they heard her testimony.
The legal issues here get complicated fast, but it's important
to understand that the prosecution must turn over anything that
(08:32):
would be helpful to the defense. It can be a
lead on another suspect, or some forensic report that casts
doubt on a piece of evidence, or information that calls
the credibility of a state's witness into question. This is
called Brady information, after a famous US Supreme Court case
(08:56):
called Brady v. Maryland.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
And if a.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Court finds out later that prosecutors failed to turn over
Brady information, that's a constitutional violation and the court will
order a new trial. So if prosecutors knew that Violet
(09:22):
Ellison came forward looking for the reward, they should have
told to Forrest trial lawyers about it, and then they
could have brought it up at trial. They could have
told the jury when you go back and deliberate about
Violet Ellison's testimony. Remember, there's a reward being offered and
she wants that reward. Are you sure money isn't part
(09:44):
of the equation here? But the jury never heard anything
about the reward.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
She was very credible.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Monique Hicks was on the jury into Forrest's second trial
and she voted to convict to Forrest on Violet Ellison's testimony.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
She just seemed very truthful, like she had nothing to
gain by coming forward. She had heard this information and
she felt like I have to share this. She was
a very credible witness compared to some of the others
that took the sand like we believed her. Obviously we
believed her because we convicted him and it was on
her testimony.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Overturning a conviction is damn near impossible. Our system prioritizes
finality in part because a jury's verdict is considered a
community statement and given great weight. So for to Forrest
to get a new trial, his lawyers needed to prove
two things that Violet Ellison came forward with her story
(10:46):
in the hopes of getting the reward, and that police
and prosecutors were aware of this true motivation. There's one
big problem. If Violet Ellison had been paid, documentation of
the payment should have been into Forrest's case file, but
there wasn't anything there. Still, Tye and the other attorneys
(11:11):
had a hunch that Violet Ellison got the money. The
legal team tried calling everywhere they could, the Sheriff's office,
the Governor's office, the Record's division. What should have been
just a simple phone call turned into a multi week endeavor. Finally,
someone at the Governor's office said they might have something
(11:35):
and would send over a fax.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I do remember us all hovering around the fact machine
waiting to see what it was, because it was the
first time that anyone had acknowledged that there might be
something that was helpful.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
The fax machine spits out a piece of paper signed
by Judge Alfred Bayhackle, the man who presided over to
Forrest's trials and sentenced him to death. The paper authorized
Violet Ellison to receive five thousand dollars in reward money
in exchange for her testimony that led to the conviction
(12:09):
of to Forest Johnson.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
That was when we knew, okay, she did know about
this reward. She was motivated by the reward when she testified,
and the judge knew about it in an order that
was not included in the court file.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
For to Forest's legal team, this was a huge first step.
The language in the court order said that Violet Ellison
came forward pursuant to the public offer of a reward.
And again, this authorization document was signed by the judge.
It's an official court document. It should have been into
(12:49):
Forest's court file right there where everyone could see it,
but it wasn't. Instead, to Forest's legal team had to
go on a bureaquecratic goose chase to find it. Was
someone trying to hide something what other documents were missing
from the public file. So a young investigator working with
(13:16):
Taforest's legal team named Jason Marx went right to the source.
He walked up to Violet Ellison's house, holding Judge Bahackele's
court order that authorized her payment in one hand and
knocked on her front door with the other.
Speaker 8 (13:33):
When I showed up at her house, he said something
about the phone calls, and I said, Oh, I'm not
here to talk to you about the phone calls. I'm
here to talk about the reward that you got. And
that's when she said I didn't get a reward, I
was like, oh, well that's funny. I was like, I
have some paperwork here that says you got a reward,
and so basically yeah. So basically confronted her with the document,
she said, Oh, yeah, I did get a reward, got
(13:55):
five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
After initially denying it, Violet Ellison told Jason the state
paid her five thousand dollars for testifying against to Forrest Johnson.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
We knew when we got the judge's order that he
had authorized the payment, and then she told us that
she got paid, so we knew it all. When you
take a step back, he's on death row because the
jury believed a woman who they didn't know was being
paid for her testimony, and that should cause real concerns
and questions about the validity of the conviction.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
To Forest's legal team files a Brady claim against the
state that argues the jury into Forest's trial should have
heard about the reward, Violet Ellison knew about the reward
when she came forward, and that the state suppressed the
information on purpose. The state denies everything. They deny any
(14:55):
Brady violation, and they deny all of the allegations into
Forest's including that Violet Ellison was motivated by the reward
and that she was paid five thousand dollars. But to
Forest's legal team has evidence to the contrary, the court
order that was faxed to them and Violet Ellison herself.
(15:18):
After the state submits a written denial of all of
the charges brought by to Forest's legal team, the case
heads to court, but Alabama courts won't hear the case.
They say the reward doesn't qualify as Brady, so the
appeal takes years to make its way through the courts.
(15:46):
When to Forest and Ty first met, to Forrest's five
kids were all under the age of ten, and as
the Brady claim crawls through the legal system, seventeen years
go by, Trus's oldest daughter has graduated college and his
four other kids are having kids of their own. Finally,
(16:11):
to Forest's legal team gets the case in front of
the United States Supreme Court. The justices tell the Alabama
courts that they're wrong for not reviewing to forest Brady claim.
The State of Alabama must hear the evidence about the reward.
(16:35):
Ahead of the hearing, Judge Teresa Pulliam gives the state
very clear orders.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
You have to turn over everything, everything that you have
that concerns a reward payment, you have to turn it
over to mister Johnson's lawyers.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
So the state gives to Forest's legal team what they
say are all of the documents about to Forest's case.
An attorney representing the state tells Judge Pulliam the files
contained nothing about anyone applying for a reward or being
granted a reward.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I think it was eight or nine banker's boxes of documents,
and we went through every single page looking for any
mention of a reward payment about Elson, and there was
nothing in there.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
But then the Forest's legal team gets a tip from
an insider. The woman who served as office manager at
the Jefferson County District Attorney's office went to Forest was
on trial.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
So she told us that if we were only looking
in the case file, we weren't looking everywhere that the
documentation might be because they also had a reward file
that they kept separate from the case files that would
include paperwork and documentation of witnesses who had sought rewards
and or been paid rewards.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Reward information in the DA's office, according to this source,
was kept in a separate confidential file away from prosecutors
involved in trials like Jeff Wallace. This meant he couldn't
turn it over to to Forest lawyers because he didn't
know about it. To to Forest's attorneys, this meant the
(18:17):
information about the reward was kept from them intentionally suppressed.
The judge orders the DA's office to turn over this
separate confidential file.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
We got an email that said, we found these documents.
They had been misfiled, and here they are.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Here they are. After seventeen years, the state finally turned
over every document to Forest lawyers had asked for the
hidden treasure trove, an application for the reward that signed
by Violet Ellison, a copy of the actual check for
five thousand dollars made out to Violet Ellison, an email
(19:04):
exchange between District Attorney David Barber and the Governor's office
about how to pay the reward, and a letter from
DA Barber asking the governor to pay Violet Ellison the money,
saying that she came forward pursuant to the offer of
a reward. If this hidden information about the reward kept
(19:36):
away from to Forest lawyers for seventeen years doesn't count
as prosecutorial misconduct as a Brady violation. What does But
according to the state, all of these documents were simply misfiled.
(19:58):
When I hear misfiled, I imagine someone accidentally putting a
document into the wrong folder, or maybe a paper falling
behind a cabinet. But that's not what happened. It sounds
like they had it organized in a file they kept
explicitly for rewards, a file that no one seemed to
(20:19):
know about except the office manager and the DA himself,
David Barber, who headed the prosecutor's office. How is this acceptable?
Speaker 7 (20:49):
Hello?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yes, I was calling for David Barber. Mister Barber. My
name is Beth Shelburne. I called David Barber, who's now
retired after serving as Jefferson County's top prosecutor for twenty
four years. He was DA when to Forest was tried
for capital murder and personally involved in the reward issue.
(21:11):
He wrote the letter asking the governor to pay Violet Ellison.
The defense team for mister Johnson didn't have any records
about the reward until twenty nineteen. The Attorney General's office
produced the records and said they had been misfiled. Okay,
does that sound strange to you or do you have
(21:33):
any idea how that could.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Have happened.
Speaker 7 (21:37):
The AG's office If they said he got misfiled, and
I guess he got misfiled the human error, I guess.
I don't know. I don't second guess people. I mean
things happened. You have people working in agency's DA's offices.
AG's office is Governor's office. Things getting misfiled, and I
(21:57):
mean it, it happens.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
It happens. Actually, it did happen at least one other
time on Barber's watch. In two thousand and four, a
man named Montez Spradley was sentenced to death for murder
based on the testimony of one witness, just like to
Forest Johnson. Eventually, Spradley's lawyers discovered the star witness was
(22:22):
paid ten thousand dollars for her testimony, but police and
prosecutors never disclosed the reward payment because the reward documents
were kept in this same separate file as Violet Ellison's
reward payment. The judge in that case also didn't disclose
(22:42):
information about the reward. The judge was Gloria Bayhackle, the
sister of Alfred Bayhackle. The judge into Forrest's trial. Hello, Hey,
my name is Beth Sholburn. I was wondering if mister
(23:06):
Alfred Bayhackle is here. My producer, Mara, and I went
to Judge Alfred bay Hackle's house, hoping to talk to
him about these off the record payment authorizations, but he
told us that he wasn't interested in commenting on any
specific cases or his time as a judge. I talk
(23:27):
to you. It's about a murder case and several of
the trials.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I can't talk about it, okay.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Montes Bradley was able to prove his innocence and was
released from prison in twenty fifteen, to Forrest and his
attorneys hope for this same outcome. I first heard about
(24:23):
to Force Johnson's case in twenty nineteen, when the Brady
hearing was scheduled. I was assigned to cover the hearing
for WBrC, the news station where I used to work.
This hearing would determine whether Violet Ellison's secret reward payment
amounted to prosecutorial misconduct. I didn't know much about to
(24:46):
Force case back then, only that he was on death
row for a crime that he said he didn't commit
and was convicted on the testimony of an ear witness
who was paid off the record. In preparation for the hearing,
I met with t Forest's cousin Antonio Green, and other
family members at their uncle's house. They all said to
(25:09):
Forrest was optimistic about the hearing, and.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
He tells me, he says all the time, well, you know,
cause I know I didn't do this, so one day
it'll all come out.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Old.
Speaker 7 (25:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
On the day of the hearing, I only took a
pen and notebook into Judge Pulliam's courtroom because she doesn't
allow recording. I sat next to to Forest's mother, Donna,
in a middle row, and I spotted to Forrest sitting
at the defence table with his attorneys. This was the
first and only time I've ever seen to Forrest Johnson
(25:45):
in person. He was wearing an orange and white striped
jail jumpsuit and was in handcuffs and leg irons. At
one point, he turned and smiled at his family, and
I heard his mom next to me say softly, hey baby.
The courtroom was packed and much of the crowd was
(26:06):
to Forrest's family and friends, but I also saw Jefferson
County's newly elected district attorney seated in the first row
Danny Carr. He's the first black man to be elected
top prosecutor in Jefferson County. A month before this hearing,
a group of faith leaders who knew about to Forest
(26:26):
case published an open letter to Carr asking him to
push for a new trial, but at this point Carr
had not commented publicly on the case. The hearing starts
at nine am to Forrest's attorneys present all of the
(26:46):
documents that took the state seventeen years to turn over.
They argue that the documents show the state suppressed evidence
that Violet Ellison initially contacted police in pursuit of the
reward money, and then the state hid that she was
eventually paid five thousand dollars. Just after ten am, the
(27:16):
state calls only one witness to testify, Violet Ellison. She's
seventy seven years old and walks to the stand using
a cane. She has short white hair and is dressed
in a white blazer and black pants. After she's sworn in,
Violet Ellison says that she knew the victim and followed
(27:39):
the details about the murder and investigation by watching the
news and reading the newspaper. But despite all that, and
despite the fact that information about the reward was all
over the news, she is vehement that she didn't know
about the reward. She testifies that the first time she
(28:01):
heard about the reward was after to Forrest was sentenced
to death in July of two thousand and one, three
years after he was convicted. She says that's when someone
from the DA's office contacted her and asked her to
come in and sign papers for the reward money. At
(28:24):
the end of this five hour hearing, Judge Pulliam says
she's not going to make a decision that day. She'll
consider all of the evidence and then issue her ruling
to Forrest's mother, Donna, sitting next to me, bursts into tears.
(28:48):
After the hearing, I was going over my notes and
noticed a big discrepancy between the state's story and Violet
Ellison's testimony about what triggered the reward three years after
to Forrest was convicted. In opening statements, the state lawyer
said that Violet Ellison asked the DA's office about the reward,
(29:11):
but on the stand, Violet said it was the other
way around that they contacted her. This might seem like
a minor detail, but knowing what triggered the reward payment
is key in determining whether or not this is a
Brady violation. Who called who first? How did this payment
(29:33):
come about? So I emailed the Attorney General's office for
some clarity, and they directly contradicted Violet Ellison's testimony again,
writing three years after the trial, Ellison requested the cash
reward that had been offered by the governor, and since
then Alabama's Attorney General completely reversed the state's narrative. The
(29:59):
AG's offic now claims that the prosecutor asked for the
reward to be paid unbeknownst to Violet Ellison. But former
DA David Barber told me he wouldn't do that, that
rewards were triggered by law enforcement or a witness themselves
applying for a reward, and Prosecutor Jeff Wallace said he
(30:22):
had nothing to do with rewards. Everyone I asked gave
a different answer, pointing the finger in a different direction.
Nobody wanted to own up to triggering the payment. The
state continuously changing its story on this important detail isn't
(30:43):
just sloppy, it's incredibly suspicious. It takes nine months for
Judge Pulliam to issue her decision. She writes that she
found Violet Ellison to be confident, describing her as well
(31:08):
dressed and well spoken, and that her articulate testimony outweighed
the evidence presented by to Forrest Johnson's attorneys. William says
the documents don't prove that Violet Ellison knew about the
money when she testified and don't amount to misconduct by
the state. She doesn't address the fact that it took
(31:30):
the state seventeen years to admit they had paid Violet Ellison.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Really, what she was doing was validating the credibility of
Violet Ellison, saying I didn't know that there was even
a reward offered in the case, which is impossible to believe,
and then validating her testimony that three years after the trial,
not having known that there was even a reward offered
in the case, the DA's office out of the blue
(32:00):
caught her up one day and said, Hey, remember that
case you testified in. We have five thousand dollars of
the state's money that we'd like to give you for that.
Do you want to come down and get it? And
she said sure and came down and got it, which
is also impossible to believe.
Speaker 7 (32:21):
To.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Forrest's legal team appeals the decision, and in April of
twenty twenty one, I attend oral arguments in front of
the State Court of Criminal Appeals. I notice all five
(32:42):
judges on the court are white. In fact, everyone in
the courtroom is white. The disconnect is striking to Forest Johnson.
Isn't here All these white people are discussing the fate
of a black man who is locked away on death row,
completely absent from this process. This dynamic isn't unique to
(33:11):
this hearing. Black people make up twenty seven percent of
Alabama's overall population, but fifty four percent of the state
prison population. There are no black appellate judges and only
three of the forty two elected das and Alabama are black.
(33:31):
This lack of representation means it's almost always white people
making policy and punishment decisions that impact a disproportionate poor
and black population. To Forest, hearing in the Court of
Criminal Appeals lasts just forty nine minutes. It's another denial.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
At the end of the trial, once the verdict was
read and everything was done, the jury was finished with
their job. Now, I remember the judge saying that to
Forrest would be sentenced at another date.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Monique Kicks again, who served on the jury into Forrest's
second trial. Monique wanted to talk with me after she
saw a news story about Violet Ellison and the reward payment,
so I made the hour long drive to her house
to speak to her in person. Monique was twenty seven
years old when she voted for Forest's guilt and a
(35:01):
death sentence. As soon as that was over, security quickly
ushered the jury out the back door of the courthouse
to the parking deck. She never found out if the
judge agreed that to Forrest should be put to death
or spend life in prison.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
I never heard anything, didn't see it in the news,
may have dismissed it that night. The internet wasn't a thing.
I couldn't look it up, google it, so I honestly
never knew ultimately what happened to mister Johnson.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Twenty years later, Monique gets a book recommendation from a friend.
The Sun Does Shine, a memoir by Anthony Ray Hinton,
a black man from Birmingham who was sent to death
row in nineteen eighty five despite a solid alibi and
no eyewitnesses tying him to the murder. He was exonerated
(35:56):
thirty years later.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
And so I was reading the book book and as
I'm reading the book, I'm like, oh, wow, this was
set in Birmingham in the eighties. I was like, I
was on a jury in the nineties in Jefferson County
in Birmingham. That's interesting. By the time I got to
the end of the book, I remember I looked at
my husband and I said, Oh, my goodness, I think
we convicted an innocent man, because I was like, there's
(36:21):
no way ten years later that the injustices and the
corruption that were going on in the system had cleaned
themselves up. About two weeks later, I'm sitting on my
sofa and I opened up my local news app to
just read the headlines to Forrest Johnson has been claiming
innocence for over twenty years on death row, something to
(36:43):
that effect. And I opened up the article and started reading,
and I just started sobbing, like uncontrollable, because I was like, Oh,
my goodness, we did convict an innocent man and he's
been on death row all these years, and I didn't
know it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
It wasn't until twenty nineteen, more than two decades after
she voted to convict to Forrest Johnson, that Monique learned
that the state's key witness, Violet Ellison, was paid in
secret for her testimony.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
You know, the star witness was paid and the defense
didn't know it. The jurors didn't know it. So yeah,
I was shocked. And then I was like, well, how
shocked were to Forrest and his family when we accused
him of being guilty? So I just can't imagine what
that was like to them. Another blow.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
At the time of the trial, Monique found Violet Ellison
to be composed and confident. Do you think that your
impression of her would have been different had you known
she was being paid five thousand dollars?
Speaker 5 (37:56):
I definitely believe we would have as a jury talked
about that, like how credible is this testimony? She's being
paid for it. Yes, I do think there would have
been conversations about it, and I do believe it would
have changed out could have changed outcome. I really felt
like the jury was used in this big game of injustice.
(38:22):
We were just just like, here's some theories. We're just
gonna keep throwing them out until we can get a
group of people together to believe it, and I just
feel like we were being used in this game. They
needed a conviction. It was a high profile case, you know,
it was a sheriff's deputy. Somebody needed to pay for it.
And to me, it just seems like we're just going
(38:43):
to throw these things out, gather people together until we
get some that believe it, And unfortunately I was in
the group that believed it.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Monique is one of three jurors that I've interviewed. All
three regret voting to convict to Forest Johnson. None of
them could quite put their finger on why they were
convinced of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, other than
believing Violet Ellison. Once they learned she was paid for
(39:12):
her testimony, it was like to Forrest suddenly became real
to them. The weight of their decision was crushing. But
besides speaking out about their regret, there's nothing they can do.
They can't take back their votes. They have to live
with their decision.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
Felt a lot of grief, Shane guilt for having been
a part of this. I'm pretty even kill person. I'm
not a cryer, you know how some people cry it out.
Anything that's not my go to. I'm not a big crier,
but anytime the subject comes up, it is like deep
(40:00):
in my soul and I just get very emotional.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
I felt like I needed to talk to the person
at the center of the case outside of courtrooms and legalies.
I wanted to hear from Violet Ellison. She has a
small brick house on a busy street in Birmingham. When
I go there, the main front door is open, and
as I walk closer, I can see Violet Ellison sitting
(40:59):
inside wearing a robe. She stands up and turns to
face me. Hey are you miss Violet Ellison? Miss Ellison,
my name is Beth. I'm a journalist and I was
hoping to talk to you about the Deputy Hardy murder
(41:19):
that you were a witness in. Eventually she steps out
onto the porch, where we continue the conversation.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
And I feel like I'm just being really cute for.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Telling the truth.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, and I do.
Speaker 5 (41:35):
I don't want you.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Well, I just wanted to ask you about the issue
of the reward, since that what is That's what I mean.
I talked to Violet Ellison for twenty minutes and she
tells me no less than a dozen times that she
did not know about the reward when she came forward
to talk to police, and that she did not know
about it when she testified against Forrest at two trials.
(42:00):
You do you think about the fact that he's on
death row though, I mean, I know you said you
don't really to support the death penalty.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
Yeah, well I did at first, you know, in trouble
my spirit, and as time went by, you try to
forget the bad things that you know happened.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
But it's a little surreal for me to be face
to face with Violet Ellison, this woman who's the lynchpin
of the entire case against the forest. As we say goodbye,
she delivers the most ironic thank you I've ever received,
telling me she appreciates me talking to her directly instead
(42:47):
of relying on someone else's characterization of what she said.
Speaker 9 (42:53):
You know, nobody has come to me like you to
see how I feel about it, and they just report
and own what somebody say hearsay, And I don't like that,
because you'll never get the truth like that.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Yeah, there is a man on death row because the
jurors believed Violet Ellison. Now we know what the jury
didn't know at trial, that she was paid for her testimony,
(43:34):
and that the state hid this information. They told the
jury that Violet Ellison was credible and believable, and they
still say that, but they weren't truthful about the reward.
So why should we believe how they characterize their key witness.
Speaker 10 (43:58):
I hate to see it. I know that's my grandmother.
That's a true scam Audi deal in a way she
can get a dollar. I'm telling you she ain't that
type that's just gonna help Tom out, just to help them.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
It gotta have money, how it gotta have money at.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Long Wow, that's next time. Ear Witness is a production
of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company
Number One. Executive producers are Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wardis,
(44:32):
and me Beth Shelburn. The investigative reporting for this series
was done by me and MARAA. McNamara. Producers are Mara McNamara,
Hannah Bial and Jackie Polly Karakornhaber is our senior producer.
Britt Spangler is our sound designer. Additional story editing from
(44:53):
Marie Sutton, fact check help from Catherine Newhan, and special
thanks to to Forrest Johnson's legal defense team. You can
follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. At
Lava for Good. To see behind the scenes content from
our investigation, visit lava for goood dot com. Slash ear
(45:16):
Witness
Last time on ear witness Bally that.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Was walking that door, scanting up on this table and
say what she said. We got a full table.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
Now we got all the evidence we.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Need this Alison, would you tell us about the information
that you have for us.
Speaker 4 (00:31):
Yes, my daughter to use her three way to call for.
Speaker 5 (00:36):
His homeboy, and he named the old name is to
Barge Johnson. We had a weak case.
Speaker 6 (00:42):
It's based on testimony in one witness.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
The only evidence supposedly they had against was this ear
witness who had never heard him speak before, who had
no idea who he was.
Speaker 6 (00:55):
This case is all about alternative worlds that are in
conflict with each other and in conflict with truth, and
in conflict with what our justice system stands for.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
We forget sometime that there was a third person on
that phone who toltally discredit to what this lady says.
She heard, you know what I mean? And now how close,
how much closer can you get than that?
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Why did the jury believe this woman who eavesdrop on
the call over you who actually had on the call.
Speaker 3 (01:30):
I don't understand. I never understood that. You know, the
victim's family deserve to know what happened to their loved one,
but they get no justice, no peace out of a
wrongful conviction, you know, And this is simply a case
of does anybody all do.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Do you remember the first time you met him?
Speaker 7 (02:04):
At you?
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Ty Alper was just starting out his legal career at
the Southern Center for Human Rights when he met to
Forest Johnson. To Forest was one of the first people
on death row that Ty'd been assigned to represent. In
January of two thousand and three, ty gets into one
of the old volvos that the Southern Center had in
(02:27):
their parking lot in Atlanta and drives four hours south
to Holman Prison and at Moore, Alabama.
Speaker 2 (02:35):
The first time I met him was down at Holman.
I was by myself and well, I was going to
go down and make sure that he was okay with
us representing him and to sort of tell him where
his case was.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
Tye is twenty nine years old, and here's what he knows.
To Forest Johnson is just eight months old than he is,
and he's been on death row for over four years
for a crime he says he did not commit. When
(03:14):
ty finally gets inside the prison, he's taken to a
room called the visiting yard, but it isn't a yard
at all. It looks like a middle school cafeteria surrounded
by plexiglass. Outside the plexiglass, correctional officers and men in
prison uniforms, white slacks, white shirt with Alabama Department of
(03:35):
Corrections stamped on the back are walking by. Inside, there's
no ac and the sad attempt of cooling the room
is left to metal fans that hang in the corners
to forrest sits at a table in a plastic chair
across from Ty. Ty tries to talk quietly so he
(03:56):
doesn't disturb other lawyers working with their clients on the yard,
but loud enough to be heard over the roar of
the fans.
Speaker 2 (04:06):
And I remember saying to him, you know, mister Johnson,
I want you to know we're at the very early
stages of your appeals. There's many rounds of appeals to go.
We're going to file a petition in the US Supreme Court.
Then we're going to go back into state court. If
we lose there, we're going to go back into federal court,
and all this could take many years. And he just
(04:28):
started crying, and I assumed that he was upset because
I knew that he had claimed that he was claiming
he was innocent, and I assumed that he was upset
that this was going to take so long, and I
asked him what was wrong, and he said that he
was so happy because he had just assumed that they
could come any minute and take him to be executed.
(04:50):
And it was just the thing that struck me the most,
because not only had he been screwed over in pretty
much every possible way you can be, but nobody was
telling anything about what was going on in this case.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
But to Forrest's days without a lawyer to fight for
him are over. It's now up to Tie and the
team of lawyers at the Southern Center to do what
no one has done before, thoroughly investigate to Forrest's conviction,
a conviction that hinged on the word and credibility of
a single witness, Violet Ellison. I'm Beth Shelburne. This is
(05:34):
ear Witness, Chapter six Misfiled. After Ty leaves Holman prison,
(06:09):
he and the rest of Taforest's new legal team go
through the case. They need to understand how their new
client ended up on death row. They hear about to
Forest's alibi that he was at Tea's place when Deputy
Hardy was shot. They learn about Yolanda Chambers changing stories.
They read how the state presented conflicting theories at different trials.
(06:34):
Now it's clear to the legal team to Forest Johnson
did not kill Deputy Hardy. The state's case completely revolved
around Violet Ellison's testimony.
Speaker 2 (06:48):
So we knew that that was a potentially fruitful area
to investigate because she was the state's whole case.
Speaker 1 (06:54):
They need to figure out whether they can challenge Violet
Ellison's testimony. If they can show that it wasn't reliable,
they can argue that to Forrest deserves a new trial.
So they need to know why did Violet Ellison come
forward in the first place. Prosecutor Jeff Wallace told two
(07:16):
juries that Violet was a credible witness, someone who overheard
to Forrest Johnson admit to the crime, and she came
forward because it was the right thing to do. But
there were other reasons Violet Ellison might have come forward.
Speaker 2 (07:34):
We knew the reward was offered because it was all
over the papers, but we didn't know who got it
or if Violet Elison got it.
Speaker 1 (07:42):
The reward was not a secret. It was mentioned in
press releases and reported on TV news.
Speaker 2 (07:50):
So the next step was okay. Well, were there questions
about her credibility that the jury never heard, and an
obvious one was what was she paid for her testimony?
Speaker 1 (08:08):
If Violet Ellison knew about the reward money before trial,
or even if she had qualified for the reward, the
jury should have been told this when they heard her testimony.
The legal issues here get complicated fast, but it's important
to understand that the prosecution must turn over anything that
(08:32):
would be helpful to the defense. It can be a
lead on another suspect, or some forensic report that casts
doubt on a piece of evidence, or information that calls
the credibility of a state's witness into question. This is
called Brady information, after a famous US Supreme Court case
(08:56):
called Brady v. Maryland.
Speaker 7 (08:58):
And if a.
Speaker 1 (08:59):
Court finds out later that prosecutors failed to turn over
Brady information, that's a constitutional violation and the court will
order a new trial. So if prosecutors knew that Violet
(09:22):
Ellison came forward looking for the reward, they should have
told to Forrest trial lawyers about it, and then they
could have brought it up at trial. They could have
told the jury when you go back and deliberate about
Violet Ellison's testimony. Remember, there's a reward being offered and
she wants that reward. Are you sure money isn't part
(09:44):
of the equation here? But the jury never heard anything
about the reward.
Speaker 5 (09:50):
She was very credible.
Speaker 1 (09:53):
Monique Hicks was on the jury into Forrest's second trial
and she voted to convict to Forrest on Violet Ellison's testimony.
Speaker 5 (10:02):
She just seemed very truthful, like she had nothing to
gain by coming forward. She had heard this information and
she felt like I have to share this. She was
a very credible witness compared to some of the others
that took the sand like we believed her. Obviously we
believed her because we convicted him and it was on
her testimony.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Overturning a conviction is damn near impossible. Our system prioritizes
finality in part because a jury's verdict is considered a
community statement and given great weight. So for to Forrest
to get a new trial, his lawyers needed to prove
two things that Violet Ellison came forward with her story
(10:46):
in the hopes of getting the reward, and that police
and prosecutors were aware of this true motivation. There's one
big problem. If Violet Ellison had been paid, documentation of
the payment should have been into Forrest's case file, but
there wasn't anything there. Still, Tye and the other attorneys
(11:11):
had a hunch that Violet Ellison got the money. The
legal team tried calling everywhere they could, the Sheriff's office,
the Governor's office, the Record's division. What should have been
just a simple phone call turned into a multi week endeavor. Finally,
someone at the Governor's office said they might have something
(11:35):
and would send over a fax.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I do remember us all hovering around the fact machine
waiting to see what it was, because it was the
first time that anyone had acknowledged that there might be
something that was helpful.
Speaker 1 (11:48):
The fax machine spits out a piece of paper signed
by Judge Alfred Bayhackle, the man who presided over to
Forrest's trials and sentenced him to death. The paper authorized
Violet Ellison to receive five thousand dollars in reward money
in exchange for her testimony that led to the conviction
(12:09):
of to Forest Johnson.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
That was when we knew, okay, she did know about
this reward. She was motivated by the reward when she testified,
and the judge knew about it in an order that
was not included in the court file.
Speaker 1 (12:27):
For to Forest's legal team, this was a huge first step.
The language in the court order said that Violet Ellison
came forward pursuant to the public offer of a reward.
And again, this authorization document was signed by the judge.
It's an official court document. It should have been into
(12:49):
Forest's court file right there where everyone could see it,
but it wasn't. Instead, to Forest's legal team had to
go on a bureaquecratic goose chase to find it. Was
someone trying to hide something what other documents were missing
from the public file. So a young investigator working with
(13:16):
Taforest's legal team named Jason Marx went right to the source.
He walked up to Violet Ellison's house, holding Judge Bahackele's
court order that authorized her payment in one hand and
knocked on her front door with the other.
Speaker 8 (13:33):
When I showed up at her house, he said something
about the phone calls, and I said, Oh, I'm not
here to talk to you about the phone calls. I'm
here to talk about the reward that you got. And
that's when she said I didn't get a reward, I
was like, oh, well that's funny. I was like, I
have some paperwork here that says you got a reward,
and so basically yeah. So basically confronted her with the document,
she said, Oh, yeah, I did get a reward, got
(13:55):
five thousand dollars.
Speaker 1 (13:58):
After initially denying it, Violet Ellison told Jason the state
paid her five thousand dollars for testifying against to Forrest Johnson.
Speaker 2 (14:09):
We knew when we got the judge's order that he
had authorized the payment, and then she told us that
she got paid, so we knew it all. When you
take a step back, he's on death row because the
jury believed a woman who they didn't know was being
paid for her testimony, and that should cause real concerns
and questions about the validity of the conviction.
Speaker 1 (14:32):
To Forest's legal team files a Brady claim against the
state that argues the jury into Forest's trial should have
heard about the reward, Violet Ellison knew about the reward
when she came forward, and that the state suppressed the
information on purpose. The state denies everything. They deny any
(14:55):
Brady violation, and they deny all of the allegations into
Forest's including that Violet Ellison was motivated by the reward
and that she was paid five thousand dollars. But to
Forest's legal team has evidence to the contrary, the court
order that was faxed to them and Violet Ellison herself.
(15:18):
After the state submits a written denial of all of
the charges brought by to Forest's legal team, the case
heads to court, but Alabama courts won't hear the case.
They say the reward doesn't qualify as Brady, so the
appeal takes years to make its way through the courts.
(15:46):
When to Forest and Ty first met, to Forrest's five
kids were all under the age of ten, and as
the Brady claim crawls through the legal system, seventeen years
go by, Trus's oldest daughter has graduated college and his
four other kids are having kids of their own. Finally,
(16:11):
to Forest's legal team gets the case in front of
the United States Supreme Court. The justices tell the Alabama
courts that they're wrong for not reviewing to forest Brady claim.
The State of Alabama must hear the evidence about the reward.
(16:35):
Ahead of the hearing, Judge Teresa Pulliam gives the state
very clear orders.
Speaker 2 (16:41):
You have to turn over everything, everything that you have
that concerns a reward payment, you have to turn it
over to mister Johnson's lawyers.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
So the state gives to Forest's legal team what they
say are all of the documents about to Forest's case.
An attorney representing the state tells Judge Pulliam the files
contained nothing about anyone applying for a reward or being
granted a reward.
Speaker 2 (17:09):
I think it was eight or nine banker's boxes of documents,
and we went through every single page looking for any
mention of a reward payment about Elson, and there was
nothing in there.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
But then the Forest's legal team gets a tip from
an insider. The woman who served as office manager at
the Jefferson County District Attorney's office went to Forest was
on trial.
Speaker 2 (17:33):
So she told us that if we were only looking
in the case file, we weren't looking everywhere that the
documentation might be because they also had a reward file
that they kept separate from the case files that would
include paperwork and documentation of witnesses who had sought rewards
and or been paid rewards.
Speaker 1 (17:55):
Reward information in the DA's office, according to this source,
was kept in a separate confidential file away from prosecutors
involved in trials like Jeff Wallace. This meant he couldn't
turn it over to to Forest lawyers because he didn't
know about it. To to Forest's attorneys, this meant the
(18:17):
information about the reward was kept from them intentionally suppressed.
The judge orders the DA's office to turn over this
separate confidential file.
Speaker 2 (18:31):
We got an email that said, we found these documents.
They had been misfiled, and here they are.
Speaker 1 (18:41):
Here they are. After seventeen years, the state finally turned
over every document to Forest lawyers had asked for the
hidden treasure trove, an application for the reward that signed
by Violet Ellison, a copy of the actual check for
five thousand dollars made out to Violet Ellison, an email
(19:04):
exchange between District Attorney David Barber and the Governor's office
about how to pay the reward, and a letter from
DA Barber asking the governor to pay Violet Ellison the money,
saying that she came forward pursuant to the offer of
a reward. If this hidden information about the reward kept
(19:36):
away from to Forest lawyers for seventeen years doesn't count
as prosecutorial misconduct as a Brady violation. What does But
according to the state, all of these documents were simply misfiled.
(19:58):
When I hear misfiled, I imagine someone accidentally putting a
document into the wrong folder, or maybe a paper falling
behind a cabinet. But that's not what happened. It sounds
like they had it organized in a file they kept
explicitly for rewards, a file that no one seemed to
(20:19):
know about except the office manager and the DA himself,
David Barber, who headed the prosecutor's office. How is this acceptable?
Speaker 7 (20:49):
Hello?
Speaker 1 (20:50):
Yes, I was calling for David Barber. Mister Barber. My
name is Beth Shelburne. I called David Barber, who's now
retired after serving as Jefferson County's top prosecutor for twenty
four years. He was DA when to Forest was tried
for capital murder and personally involved in the reward issue.
(21:11):
He wrote the letter asking the governor to pay Violet Ellison.
The defense team for mister Johnson didn't have any records
about the reward until twenty nineteen. The Attorney General's office
produced the records and said they had been misfiled. Okay,
does that sound strange to you or do you have
(21:33):
any idea how that could.
Speaker 5 (21:34):
Have happened.
Speaker 7 (21:37):
The AG's office If they said he got misfiled, and
I guess he got misfiled the human error, I guess.
I don't know. I don't second guess people. I mean
things happened. You have people working in agency's DA's offices.
AG's office is Governor's office. Things getting misfiled, and I
(21:57):
mean it, it happens.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
It happens. Actually, it did happen at least one other
time on Barber's watch. In two thousand and four, a
man named Montez Spradley was sentenced to death for murder
based on the testimony of one witness, just like to
Forest Johnson. Eventually, Spradley's lawyers discovered the star witness was
(22:22):
paid ten thousand dollars for her testimony, but police and
prosecutors never disclosed the reward payment because the reward documents
were kept in this same separate file as Violet Ellison's
reward payment. The judge in that case also didn't disclose
(22:42):
information about the reward. The judge was Gloria Bayhackle, the
sister of Alfred Bayhackle. The judge into Forrest's trial. Hello, Hey,
my name is Beth Sholburn. I was wondering if mister
(23:06):
Alfred Bayhackle is here. My producer, Mara, and I went
to Judge Alfred bay Hackle's house, hoping to talk to
him about these off the record payment authorizations, but he
told us that he wasn't interested in commenting on any
specific cases or his time as a judge. I talk
(23:27):
to you. It's about a murder case and several of
the trials.
Speaker 2 (23:34):
I can't talk about it, okay.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
Montes Bradley was able to prove his innocence and was
released from prison in twenty fifteen, to Forrest and his
attorneys hope for this same outcome. I first heard about
(24:23):
to Force Johnson's case in twenty nineteen, when the Brady
hearing was scheduled. I was assigned to cover the hearing
for WBrC, the news station where I used to work.
This hearing would determine whether Violet Ellison's secret reward payment
amounted to prosecutorial misconduct. I didn't know much about to
(24:46):
Force case back then, only that he was on death
row for a crime that he said he didn't commit
and was convicted on the testimony of an ear witness
who was paid off the record. In preparation for the hearing,
I met with t Forest's cousin Antonio Green, and other
family members at their uncle's house. They all said to
(25:09):
Forrest was optimistic about the hearing, and.
Speaker 3 (25:12):
He tells me, he says all the time, well, you know,
cause I know I didn't do this, so one day
it'll all come out.
Speaker 5 (25:20):
Old.
Speaker 7 (25:20):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:22):
On the day of the hearing, I only took a
pen and notebook into Judge Pulliam's courtroom because she doesn't
allow recording. I sat next to to Forest's mother, Donna,
in a middle row, and I spotted to Forrest sitting
at the defence table with his attorneys. This was the
first and only time I've ever seen to Forrest Johnson
(25:45):
in person. He was wearing an orange and white striped
jail jumpsuit and was in handcuffs and leg irons. At
one point, he turned and smiled at his family, and
I heard his mom next to me say softly, hey baby.
The courtroom was packed and much of the crowd was
(26:06):
to Forrest's family and friends, but I also saw Jefferson
County's newly elected district attorney seated in the first row
Danny Carr. He's the first black man to be elected
top prosecutor in Jefferson County. A month before this hearing,
a group of faith leaders who knew about to Forest
(26:26):
case published an open letter to Carr asking him to
push for a new trial, but at this point Carr
had not commented publicly on the case. The hearing starts
at nine am to Forrest's attorneys present all of the
(26:46):
documents that took the state seventeen years to turn over.
They argue that the documents show the state suppressed evidence
that Violet Ellison initially contacted police in pursuit of the
reward money, and then the state hid that she was
eventually paid five thousand dollars. Just after ten am, the
(27:16):
state calls only one witness to testify, Violet Ellison. She's
seventy seven years old and walks to the stand using
a cane. She has short white hair and is dressed
in a white blazer and black pants. After she's sworn in,
Violet Ellison says that she knew the victim and followed
(27:39):
the details about the murder and investigation by watching the
news and reading the newspaper. But despite all that, and
despite the fact that information about the reward was all
over the news, she is vehement that she didn't know
about the reward. She testifies that the first time she
(28:01):
heard about the reward was after to Forrest was sentenced
to death in July of two thousand and one, three
years after he was convicted. She says that's when someone
from the DA's office contacted her and asked her to
come in and sign papers for the reward money. At
(28:24):
the end of this five hour hearing, Judge Pulliam says
she's not going to make a decision that day. She'll
consider all of the evidence and then issue her ruling
to Forrest's mother, Donna, sitting next to me, bursts into tears.
(28:48):
After the hearing, I was going over my notes and
noticed a big discrepancy between the state's story and Violet
Ellison's testimony about what triggered the reward three years after
to Forrest was convicted. In opening statements, the state lawyer
said that Violet Ellison asked the DA's office about the reward,
(29:11):
but on the stand, Violet said it was the other
way around that they contacted her. This might seem like
a minor detail, but knowing what triggered the reward payment
is key in determining whether or not this is a
Brady violation. Who called who first? How did this payment
(29:33):
come about? So I emailed the Attorney General's office for
some clarity, and they directly contradicted Violet Ellison's testimony again,
writing three years after the trial, Ellison requested the cash
reward that had been offered by the governor, and since
then Alabama's Attorney General completely reversed the state's narrative. The
(29:59):
AG's offic now claims that the prosecutor asked for the
reward to be paid unbeknownst to Violet Ellison. But former
DA David Barber told me he wouldn't do that, that
rewards were triggered by law enforcement or a witness themselves
applying for a reward, and Prosecutor Jeff Wallace said he
(30:22):
had nothing to do with rewards. Everyone I asked gave
a different answer, pointing the finger in a different direction.
Nobody wanted to own up to triggering the payment. The
state continuously changing its story on this important detail isn't
(30:43):
just sloppy, it's incredibly suspicious. It takes nine months for
Judge Pulliam to issue her decision. She writes that she
found Violet Ellison to be confident, describing her as well
(31:08):
dressed and well spoken, and that her articulate testimony outweighed
the evidence presented by to Forrest Johnson's attorneys. William says
the documents don't prove that Violet Ellison knew about the
money when she testified and don't amount to misconduct by
the state. She doesn't address the fact that it took
(31:30):
the state seventeen years to admit they had paid Violet Ellison.
Speaker 2 (31:37):
Really, what she was doing was validating the credibility of
Violet Ellison, saying I didn't know that there was even
a reward offered in the case, which is impossible to believe,
and then validating her testimony that three years after the trial,
not having known that there was even a reward offered
in the case, the DA's office out of the blue
(32:00):
caught her up one day and said, Hey, remember that
case you testified in. We have five thousand dollars of
the state's money that we'd like to give you for that.
Do you want to come down and get it? And
she said sure and came down and got it, which
is also impossible to believe.
Speaker 7 (32:21):
To.
Speaker 1 (32:21):
Forrest's legal team appeals the decision, and in April of
twenty twenty one, I attend oral arguments in front of
the State Court of Criminal Appeals. I notice all five
(32:42):
judges on the court are white. In fact, everyone in
the courtroom is white. The disconnect is striking to Forest Johnson.
Isn't here All these white people are discussing the fate
of a black man who is locked away on death row,
completely absent from this process. This dynamic isn't unique to
(33:11):
this hearing. Black people make up twenty seven percent of
Alabama's overall population, but fifty four percent of the state
prison population. There are no black appellate judges and only
three of the forty two elected das and Alabama are black.
(33:31):
This lack of representation means it's almost always white people
making policy and punishment decisions that impact a disproportionate poor
and black population. To Forest, hearing in the Court of
Criminal Appeals lasts just forty nine minutes. It's another denial.
Speaker 5 (34:25):
At the end of the trial, once the verdict was
read and everything was done, the jury was finished with
their job. Now, I remember the judge saying that to
Forrest would be sentenced at another date.
Speaker 1 (34:39):
Monique Kicks again, who served on the jury into Forrest's
second trial. Monique wanted to talk with me after she
saw a news story about Violet Ellison and the reward payment,
so I made the hour long drive to her house
to speak to her in person. Monique was twenty seven
years old when she voted for Forest's guilt and a
(35:01):
death sentence. As soon as that was over, security quickly
ushered the jury out the back door of the courthouse
to the parking deck. She never found out if the
judge agreed that to Forrest should be put to death
or spend life in prison.
Speaker 5 (35:20):
I never heard anything, didn't see it in the news,
may have dismissed it that night. The internet wasn't a thing.
I couldn't look it up, google it, so I honestly
never knew ultimately what happened to mister Johnson.
Speaker 1 (35:34):
Twenty years later, Monique gets a book recommendation from a friend.
The Sun Does Shine, a memoir by Anthony Ray Hinton,
a black man from Birmingham who was sent to death
row in nineteen eighty five despite a solid alibi and
no eyewitnesses tying him to the murder. He was exonerated
(35:56):
thirty years later.
Speaker 5 (35:58):
And so I was reading the book book and as
I'm reading the book, I'm like, oh, wow, this was
set in Birmingham in the eighties. I was like, I
was on a jury in the nineties in Jefferson County
in Birmingham. That's interesting. By the time I got to
the end of the book, I remember I looked at
my husband and I said, Oh, my goodness, I think
we convicted an innocent man, because I was like, there's
(36:21):
no way ten years later that the injustices and the
corruption that were going on in the system had cleaned
themselves up. About two weeks later, I'm sitting on my
sofa and I opened up my local news app to
just read the headlines to Forrest Johnson has been claiming
innocence for over twenty years on death row, something to
(36:43):
that effect. And I opened up the article and started reading,
and I just started sobbing, like uncontrollable, because I was like, Oh,
my goodness, we did convict an innocent man and he's
been on death row all these years, and I didn't
know it.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
It wasn't until twenty nineteen, more than two decades after
she voted to convict to Forrest Johnson, that Monique learned
that the state's key witness, Violet Ellison, was paid in
secret for her testimony.
Speaker 5 (37:18):
You know, the star witness was paid and the defense
didn't know it. The jurors didn't know it. So yeah,
I was shocked. And then I was like, well, how
shocked were to Forrest and his family when we accused
him of being guilty? So I just can't imagine what
that was like to them. Another blow.
Speaker 1 (37:40):
At the time of the trial, Monique found Violet Ellison
to be composed and confident. Do you think that your
impression of her would have been different had you known
she was being paid five thousand dollars?
Speaker 5 (37:56):
I definitely believe we would have as a jury talked
about that, like how credible is this testimony? She's being
paid for it. Yes, I do think there would have
been conversations about it, and I do believe it would
have changed out could have changed outcome. I really felt
like the jury was used in this big game of injustice.
(38:22):
We were just just like, here's some theories. We're just
gonna keep throwing them out until we can get a
group of people together to believe it, and I just
feel like we were being used in this game. They
needed a conviction. It was a high profile case, you know,
it was a sheriff's deputy. Somebody needed to pay for it.
And to me, it just seems like we're just going
(38:43):
to throw these things out, gather people together until we
get some that believe it, And unfortunately I was in
the group that believed it.
Speaker 1 (38:51):
Monique is one of three jurors that I've interviewed. All
three regret voting to convict to Forest Johnson. None of
them could quite put their finger on why they were
convinced of his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, other than
believing Violet Ellison. Once they learned she was paid for
(39:12):
her testimony, it was like to Forrest suddenly became real
to them. The weight of their decision was crushing. But
besides speaking out about their regret, there's nothing they can do.
They can't take back their votes. They have to live
with their decision.
Speaker 5 (39:36):
Felt a lot of grief, Shane guilt for having been
a part of this. I'm pretty even kill person. I'm
not a cryer, you know how some people cry it out.
Anything that's not my go to. I'm not a big crier,
but anytime the subject comes up, it is like deep
(40:00):
in my soul and I just get very emotional.
Speaker 1 (40:35):
I felt like I needed to talk to the person
at the center of the case outside of courtrooms and legalies.
I wanted to hear from Violet Ellison. She has a
small brick house on a busy street in Birmingham. When
I go there, the main front door is open, and
as I walk closer, I can see Violet Ellison sitting
(40:59):
inside wearing a robe. She stands up and turns to
face me. Hey are you miss Violet Ellison? Miss Ellison,
my name is Beth. I'm a journalist and I was
hoping to talk to you about the Deputy Hardy murder
(41:19):
that you were a witness in. Eventually she steps out
onto the porch, where we continue the conversation.
Speaker 2 (41:27):
And I feel like I'm just being really cute for.
Speaker 3 (41:32):
Telling the truth.
Speaker 2 (41:33):
Yeah, and I do.
Speaker 5 (41:35):
I don't want you.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Well, I just wanted to ask you about the issue
of the reward, since that what is That's what I mean.
I talked to Violet Ellison for twenty minutes and she
tells me no less than a dozen times that she
did not know about the reward when she came forward
to talk to police, and that she did not know
about it when she testified against Forrest at two trials.
(42:00):
You do you think about the fact that he's on
death row though, I mean, I know you said you
don't really to support the death penalty.
Speaker 4 (42:07):
Yeah, well I did at first, you know, in trouble
my spirit, and as time went by, you try to
forget the bad things that you know happened.
Speaker 1 (42:22):
But it's a little surreal for me to be face
to face with Violet Ellison, this woman who's the lynchpin
of the entire case against the forest. As we say goodbye,
she delivers the most ironic thank you I've ever received,
telling me she appreciates me talking to her directly instead
(42:47):
of relying on someone else's characterization of what she said.
Speaker 9 (42:53):
You know, nobody has come to me like you to
see how I feel about it, and they just report
and own what somebody say hearsay, And I don't like that,
because you'll never get the truth like that.
Speaker 1 (43:10):
Yeah, there is a man on death row because the
jurors believed Violet Ellison. Now we know what the jury
didn't know at trial, that she was paid for her testimony,
(43:34):
and that the state hid this information. They told the
jury that Violet Ellison was credible and believable, and they
still say that, but they weren't truthful about the reward.
So why should we believe how they characterize their key witness.
Speaker 10 (43:58):
I hate to see it. I know that's my grandmother.
That's a true scam Audi deal in a way she
can get a dollar. I'm telling you she ain't that
type that's just gonna help Tom out, just to help them.
Speaker 3 (44:08):
It gotta have money, how it gotta have money at.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Long Wow, that's next time. Ear Witness is a production
of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company
Number One. Executive producers are Jason Flam, Jeff Kempler, Kevin Wardis,
(44:32):
and me Beth Shelburn. The investigative reporting for this series
was done by me and MARAA. McNamara. Producers are Mara McNamara,
Hannah Bial and Jackie Polly Karakornhaber is our senior producer.
Britt Spangler is our sound designer. Additional story editing from
(44:53):
Marie Sutton, fact check help from Catherine Newhan, and special
thanks to to Forrest Johnson's legal defense team. You can
follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter. At
Lava for Good. To see behind the scenes content from
our investigation, visit lava for goood dot com. Slash ear
(45:16):
Witness
Host
Beth Shelburne
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