Attorneys for Alabama Death Row inmate Toforest Johnson are asking the U.S. Supreme Court to review his case, arguing the key witness was secretly paid a reward for her testimony.
The appeal wound its way through the state court system for years, with the Alabama Supreme Court declining to review the case in December.
“If not for a retired state employee informing Johnson’s counsel in 2018 that the State maintained a confidential reward file, Johnson never would have obtained the documents about the payment.” Ellison told police she heard a man who identified himself as Toforest confess to the shooting. She didn’t know Johnson, and said she overheard the remark when she picked up the phone during a call her daughter made to a friend who was in jail. Her story “contradicted the physical evidence in the case,” said Monday’s filing.
In 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court reviewed Johnson’s case and sent the case back to state court. There was a hearing in Jefferson County, where Johnson was convicted, and it wasn’t until 2018 that the copy of the check that was paid to Ellison surfaced.
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