Introducing: Earwitness

One July night in 1995, Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was shot behind the Crown Sterling Suites hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. At the same time as the murder, at least ten people saw Toforest Johnson four miles away, at a popular nightclub called Tee's Place. But detectives zeroed in on him as a main suspect in Deputy Hardy’s murder anyway, ultimately resulting in Toforest being tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. For over a quarter century, Toforest has been confined to a 5’ by 8’ cell on Alabama’s death row.

In 2019, investigative journalist Beth Shelburne began covering the case, going down a disturbing rabbit hole revealing many unsettling facts that cast grave doubts about Toforest’s guilt. The facts she found tear at the very foundation of the American criminal justice system: No eyewitnesses or physical evidence tied Toforest to the murder; the state tried to convict a different man for the same crime; and perhaps most disturbing of all, Toforest’s conviction relied on an ‘earwitness’ – a woman who claimed to have eavesdropped on an incriminating phone call, a woman whom prosecutors paid for her testimony, in secret. That payment was not disclosed to the jury, Toforest, or his lawyers until after he had been on death row for 17 years.

From the team behind the award-winning hit podcast Bone Valley, Lava for Good’s Earwitness is an 8-episode docuseries that asks the question, “How did an innocent man end up on death row — and why is the state still trying to execute him over the objection of the prosecutor who put him there?” Shelburne’s unprecedented access to key players—the lead detective, lead prosecutor, witnesses, jurors, and the earwitness herself— illuminate a story filled with disturbing twists, frustrating ambiguities, and shocking admissions. The story of Toforest Johnson and the state's enthusiasm for the death penalty in the face of such troubling evidentiary flaws brings to light the failings of a criminal justice system run amok.

Earwitness will be available every Tuesday beginning September 19 wherever you get your podcasts. To hear episodes 1 week early and ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good+ on Apple Podcasts.

Earwitness is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
Ye man, this cross will tell you what appeared to
be a Jefferson County police officer shot in the back
of our building. End that movie. It is one of us.
They have got one down and they just look bad.
It looks too bad you.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
In nineteen ninety five, detective Tony Richardson was trying to
figure out who killed a fellow officer, Deputy Bill Hardy.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Had it been my decision the day we caught the
people that did it, Let's let's put them on death.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
Throat Without solid evidence, the case comes down to who
is believed and who is ignored.

Speaker 4 (00:48):
Evidence was We had versually no evidence. We had the
word of a fifteen year old who told lies, a
lot of lies.

Speaker 5 (01:00):
She said she was there and I was there. That's
a life, a life, that's a shame.

Speaker 2 (01:06):
When the deputy was shot at the hotel, to Forest
Johnson was four miles away, but now he's on death row.

Speaker 6 (01:15):
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 4 (01:28):
We had a weak case based on testimony in one witness.

Speaker 5 (01:32):
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 7 (01:42):
And I just started sobbing, like uncontrollable because I was like, oh,
my goodness, we did connect to an innocent man and
he's been on death row all these years and I
didn't know it.

Speaker 2 (02:01):
I'm Beth Shelburne from Lava for Good Podcasts. This is
ear Witness.

Speaker 8 (02:09):
The best thing that a person probably can do for
themselves that's suspected of a crime is do not talk to.

Speaker 4 (02:15):
The bout these period.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Now that's really interesting coming from a retired detective, but
that's the truth. Listen to Earwitness starting on September nineteenth
on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get
your podcasts, and to hear episodes one week early with
no ads, Subscribe to Lava for Good Plus on Apple
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