I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpwright became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. you get your podcasts. to follow and listen to Psychopedia everywhere you get your podcasts. Last time on Ear Witness. She was a very credible witness. We believed her. Obviously, we believed her because we convicted him and it was on her testimony. The only evidence supposedly they had against me was this earwitness who had never heard him speak before, who had no idea who he was. That is extremely strong evidence if it's believed. Of course, the question becomes, do you believe that evidence? Well, to believe that evidence, you have to believe it's Ellison. And so we're trying to get information on her. Her name's Violet Ellison. Mm-hmm. Do you have an opinion about her or have any information that you could give us about her? I know she's very pendictive. She's a very messy lady. Very messy. I can tell you one thing about my grandma. She is a, that's a true scam artist. That's a true, I hate to say it, I know that's my grandma, but that's a true scam artist, though. And I hate that this man could be innocent and for $5,000. He's on death for $5,000. I've had the tears of sorrow And I've had the voices about tomorrow Near the intersection of Rosa Parks Avenue and Liberty Street in Montgomery, Alabama is a tiny red brick church. Outside St. Peter AME, a large white banner is stretched 25 feet across the church's front lawn. The words, It's not too late to fix this mistake, are written across the banner in black and red letters. The mistake is to Forrest Johnson's conviction. The banner was created by an organization called Greater Birmingham Ministries. This year, it has traveled to eight different churches across Alabama to help raise awareness about Taforist's case. Awareness that is growing. Holy cow! It's just ridiculous. This case is shameful. My name is Lindsey Boney. I'm a lawyer at the law firm Bradley A. Rant, Bolt Cummings. When I think about this case, it's mind-blowing to me. My name is Carla Crowder. I'm a lawyer and executive director at Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. This case is stunning, and this case is heartbreaking. My name is Nick Gady. I have been an active lawyer in Birmingham since 1964. we can do better and we need to do better. Lots of people have known for a very long time that this man is innocent and he's still on death row. Why does it take 25 years? These are just a few in the chorus of powerful voices calling on the state to fix this. Lawyers from all sides of the political spectrum are lending their support. along with former prosecutors and judges, as well as Alabama churches and faith leaders, like Sister Helen Prejean. Please God, with these efforts and people hearing this about Two Forest, his life will be saved. Even death penalty supporter Bill Baxley, Alabama's former attorney general, has joined the fight. I will add my voice or anything I can do because this is a situation that shouldn't be allowed to exist another minute. When Baxley reviewed Taforris' case, he was so outraged, he wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post that said an innocent man is trapped on Alabama's death row. The only thing that I can see as to why this kind of thing happened was the victim was a law enforcement officer. To Forrest Johnson now has unprecedented support. And it's not just from all these people who believe he's innocent. The current district attorney of Jefferson County, along with the original prosecutor who sent him to death row, both now say to Forrest Johnson deserves a new trial. So why is the state of Alabama still trying to kill him? Do you hear my madness? Laughter hides my fears. Sorrow's depths are endless In this valley of tears I want to see your revelation I want to know who you are I'm reaching out in desperation To the one who's holding the stars To the one who's holding the stars I'm Beth Shelburne. This is Earwitness, Chapter 8, Bondage to the Law. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpwright became the victim of a random crime. He pulls the gun, tells me to lie down on the ground. He identified Jermaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Jermaine was sentenced to 99 years. I'm like, Lord, this can't be real. I thought it was a mistaken identity. The best lie is partial truth. For 22 years, only two people knew the truth. Until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Wells Adams with By Order of the Faithfuls podcast alongside my fellow faithfuls and co-hosts Tamara Judge and Dolores Catania. The three of us have been watching this season of The Traitors and we've been inside that castle, so we have insight unlike many others. This season of The Traitors may be the best we've ever seen. Listen to By Order of the Faithfuls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. to feel it. Make sure to follow and listen to Psychopedia everywhere you get your podcasts. Hey. What's going on? How are you? I'm all right. You doing okay? I'm good, yeah. Good to see you. I'm meeting with District Attorney Danny Carr, but not at his office in the courthouse. We're at the barbershop he owns in Birmingham's Inslee community, where he grew up. From the Inslee community where we are today, I matriculated through the Birmingham City School System. The barber shop is old school. Tile floors, posters of hairstyles on the walls, and a sign advertising $10 haircuts. Can you talk while he's buzzing? Oh, yeah. I don't normally interview prosecutors while they're getting a haircut. But Danny Carr is a busy man. In 2018, when he was elected district attorney of Jefferson County, he became the first Black man to hold the position. He now runs the same office that argued for TaForest Johnson to be sentenced to death for Deputy Bill Hardy's murder. But Danny Carr wasn't part of TaForest's prosecution. He wasn't even a lawyer yet when it happened. Danny Carr is different from other DAs in a number of ways. He ran as a changemaker. He put together the first conviction review unit in Jefferson County. The unit's job is to review cases where the DA's office might have made some mistakes. He's one of only three Black DAs among the 42 across Alabama. He grew up in a community that's been impacted by crime and mass incarceration. His family has also been a victim of violence. The year he was hired as a young prosecutor, Danny's younger brother, Jackson, was murdered. Danny named his barbershop D and J in his brother's memory. D for Danny, J for Jackson. Can you kind of walk me through your involvement in the Taforris Johnson case? When did you first become aware of it? I became aware of it when I was an assistant DA conversations about it But I didn know truly the facts of it I just overheard different conversations varying opinions about it Once Danny was elected as DA, he started hearing more about Taforist's case as a possible wrongful conviction. And the year after Danny was elected, Taforist's case was back in court. This was the hearing I covered the first time I reported on Taforist's case, where his attorneys argued that Violet Ellison testified in pursuit of the reward money and the state hid it. I saw Danny Carr at the hearing, but he told me he wasn't ready yet to comment on the case. I didn't know, you know, who was telling the truth, what was right, what was wrong. I just listened. And it was apparent that if some of that stuff was true, then it was concerning. So after the hearing, Danny decided to conduct a full review of Teforis' conviction. For nine months, he read through the trial transcripts, as well as the documents that prosecutors had claimed were misfiled. He was troubled by the $5,000 reward payment given to Violet Ellison that the jury didn't even know was a possibility. Well, if that information was not disclosed, then the process was flawed. And if the process was flawed, then the end result is not truly the end result. Because to get to that end result, the process has to be fair. Danny also talked to people involved, including alibi witnesses. But perhaps the most significant person Danny Carr consulted, the original prosecutor, Jeff Wallace, the same prosecutor who asked two juries to sentence DeForest to death. It turns out Jeff Wallace had his own questions about the credibility of his star witness, Violet Ellison, going back 15 years. I observed something that triggered in my mind the need to report this to the defense. I don't know if you know about that or not. What did you observe? After the conviction and sentence of... Several years after Taforist was convicted, Jeff said he was passing through a courtroom during a trial of a drug dealer. Jeff Wallace wasn't prosecuting the case. He just needed to ask the bailiff a question. And as I left the bailiff station, which of course is in the front of the courtroom, I'm walking out and happened to notice in the spectator's area on the front row the defendant's wife being consoled by our chief witness in the Johnson case. Violet Ellison. Ms. Ellison, that's right. In my mind, that conduct was inconsistent with the picture that I had of Ms. Ellison at the time of trial. She seemed to me to be only a mother trying to do the best thing for her daughter and happened to overhear a telephone conversation. And the notes that she made of that telephone conversation became important in the trial of Mr. Johnson, as you know. So her credibility as a citizen she was, I think was important because she was the case. She is the case. To be clear, I'm not sure what consoling a suspected drug dealer's wife has to do with Violet Ellison's credibility into Forrest's case. But Jeff said it left him with an unsettling impression about his star witness. a realization that there were things about her he didn't know. So, seeing her being so close to the wife of a man that everybody knew was a major drug dealer, disturbed me that image in my mind. And I thought, well, I'm going to report that to the other side, to the defense. And he did. In 2007, Jeff Wallace talked to Teforist's legal team about what he saw. They looked into the information, but so far it hasn't led to any new legal claims for Teforist. Fast forward 13 years, and Danny Carr calls on Jeff Wallace to talk about the conviction of Teforist Johnson. Jeff shares his concerns about Violet Ellison's credibility, and then he does something that makes a major impression on Danny. Jeff Wallace says he believes TaForest should be granted a new trial. This incredible development pushes Danny to take public action. Your job is not to get convictions. Your job is to seek the truth. But Danny has one more important call to make to Deputy Bill Hardy's family. He braces himself. It's never easy for a prosecutor to talk to a victim's family about unsettling the conviction and their loved one's murder. But he picks up the phone and calls Deputy Hardy's widow, Patricia Diane Hardy. And when I called her, she said, look, she said, I know your mom, I know you. I've been knowing you since you was a little boy. She said, you know, I trust you, and whatever decision you make, I'm fine with it, but I trust you. And you can't get any better than that. And that's what you want from people, period. And then Danny Carr does something extraordinary, something that almost never happens. He files a brief with the Jefferson County Court, writing that his duty to seek justice requires intervention in the case of TaForest Johnson. He asks Judge Pulliam to throw out TaForest's conviction and order a new trial. And he includes that the original prosecutor, Jeff Wallace, supports this call for a new trial. Of all the capital murder cases that you've looked at, you've tried, you've been familiar with as DA, how do you see this case? How would you describe it in the context of all the cases you've seen? I think it's the worst case. I spoke with Jeff Wallace about his support for a new trial. I think you joining the district attorney is a powerful statement. from a former prosecutor in a Capitol case. I can't remember in my reporting of over 20 years ever seeing that or hearing about it. Oh, I'm sure I'm not the first. Jeff seemed to want to downplay the significance of his support for a new trial. But this is seriously rare. I looked for other cases like this and reached out to experts who study wrongful convictions Nobody could remember a death penalty case in any state where the original trial prosecutor called for a new trial. I interviewed Jeff Wallace three different times with four hours of on-the-record conversations. Jeff was accessible and generous with his time, but he was also careful with his words. I still am personally satisfied that the evidence showed Taforst Johnson to be guilty. Of course, my opinion is based in large part on the testimony of the Violet Ellison that I saw at trial. But there's a, in my opinion, there's a reason to look at it again. This is what I mean by careful. He says the evidence at trial showed Toforrest to be guilty based on Violet Ellison's testimony. But he also says the concern he had about Violet Ellison's credibility is why he supports the call for a new trial. After my first conversation with Jeff Wallace in 2021, I did a lot more investigating into Violet Ellison. I asked to speak with Jeff again because I wanted to share everything that I learned. We also found that in addition to being a witness in this case, Violet Ellison has been a witness in four other criminal cases in Jefferson County. After the Johnson case? Before, during, and after. I tell Jeff about the other cases where Violet Ellison was a witness for the state and that the defense accused her of lying to police and under oath. He listens politely. But what I really want is for Jeff Wallace to hear some clips of what people are saying about Violet Ellison, the star witness he put on the stand. the same witness he now has questions about. Do you have any interest in listening to what we found? No. You don't? I find that, like, astonishing. I don't know. Can you please, can you explain why you don't want to hear what we found? I'm not the prosecuting attorney in the case. Or, for that matter, the defending attorney. Of course, they couldn't be. Yeah, but Jeff, I mean, you tried this case, and you asked the jury to sentence him to death, and he's on death row. That was the state of the evidence when I was standing in the courtroom. The evidence hasn't changed in your mind after what we've told you? No, I think the evidence has changed. but it's no longer my responsibility. In a way, he's right. The responsibility of all death row cases after conviction falls to Alabama's attorney general, an elected position that represents the entire state, unlike district attorneys who represent a single county. The current attorney general in Alabama is Steve Marshall. He could listen to Danny Carr and Jeff Wallace and allow a new trial for Teforis Johnson. But instead, the AG's office calls this a subjective opinion that does not raise an issue of extraordinary public importance or any compelling circumstances. Marshall's office is still actively and aggressively fighting Teforis' appeals and seeking his execution. These conflicting positions make me think of those big metal grain silos that you see in the Midwest, with each party in our criminal justice system in its own silo, isolated from the opposing view, trapped in their official position. I talk with Jeff Wallace about this dynamic. It does seem like there are a lot of silos that people are in in the system, and they stay in those silos. Does that make sense? It does. And if a silo is a thing that you cannot climb out of, then that's where I am. I've told you what I think. If it were legal and it were presented to me, would you or would you not order a new trial, Mr. Wallace, I would sign it today and order a new trial. But the thing you're calling a silo, my silo is a retired former prosecutor who happened to have been in charge of this case at one time. So why can't you climb out of the silo? What silo would I climb into? I can't be an appellate judge I can be the defendant attorney I can be a juror can be the defendant what if we just all climb out of our silos and nobody in a silo anymore We all just kind of out in the open Well, the law has set up these silos, and the law is still in effect. Yeah, there's this quote on the outside of the Jefferson County Courthouse that... We are in bondage to the law in order that we may be free. That's it. We are in bondage to the law, an order that we may be free. It's a quote from Roman philosopher Cicero. Why do we have to be in bondage to something to be free? Either we have laws or we don't. Which way do you want it? I guess one thing that we've been thinking about is like, what is the cost of that bondage? and is it that sometimes you end up with situations like this? I sure hope not. But the law is the law. No one's going to present me that piece of paper and ask me whether I would order a new trial. I'm in bondage to the law. You may see Jeff Wallace's support for a new trial as a half measure. He could call the case an injustice and take more accountability for his role into Forrest's conviction. But a trial prosecutor saying anything that calls a conviction into question is exceptional. There's no incentive for Jeff Wallace to say a word. No framework for prosecutors to voice doubt or space for regrets to count. And yet, Jeff Wallace still chose to speak up when he didn't have to say anything at all. In this project, we tried to answer the question of how an innocent man ended up on death row. We laid bare an investigation that was rushed to conclusion by tunnel vision and pressure to convict someone, anyone, for the murder of a deputy sheriff. This case shows us how young, marginalized people like Yolanda Chambers can be exploited and how money is wielded as an incentive for vulnerable people to become ensnared with law enforcement. It also demonstrates the terrible consequences for people who can't afford to pay for the best criminal defense. So far, the courts have said there was nothing illegal about what the state did, presenting five different theories about who committed the murder and paying the key witness behind closed doors, only admitting to this payment 17 years later. This is how our system works. According to the courts that have examined DeForest Johnson's conviction, it's not broken. It's working exactly as designed. They say that you've presumed innocent until proven guilty, and that is the law. Former Attorney General Bill Baxley. But deep down, people don't believe somebody's innocent until they've proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. They think that they had to do something or they wouldn't have been arrested and wouldn't have been indicted and wouldn't be there. Not only do they presume people guilty, but they look at these people as expendable. Richard Jaffe, who represented Ardragus Ford. When the system failed Tavares Johnson, it betrayed all of us. Tavares Johnson is as innocent as anyone could possibly be. Deputy Hardy would never want the wrong person to be convicted for his murder. After Jaffe's client, Ardragus Ford, was acquitted, he lived a quiet life, mostly in Atlanta. His mother, Joyce Ford, said Tavares' conviction weighed on her son. He never talked about it. He was strong. He never talked about it, but you know, you know, he would get quiet at times. He would be rolling in a wheelchair and go sit quiet with his head down. You know, it took him a while to try to overcome it. You never overcome it, but so, you know, he had his days. You know, through it all, through the grace of God, it was a long, hard battle, but I would never wish that on a mother. Ardragas died from health issues in 2021. His mom, Joyce Ford, died less than a year after we recorded this interview. I've been reporting on Teforis' case since 2019. I've interviewed dozens of people, but the one person I'd still most like to talk to is the very person I can't reach. Alabama's prison system doesn't allow people on death row to talk to journalists. Teforist's family has shared dozens of digital photos with me that I've kept in a folder on my laptop. There's Teforist as a baby wearing a tiny suit, as a skinny kid wearing a bow tie, and so many photos from visits at Holman Prison with his arms around his family. And I know the closest I can get to him is through the people he loves the most, his kids. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpwright became the victim of a random crime. He pulls the gun, tells me to lie down on the ground. He identified Jermaine Hudson as the perpetrator. Jermaine was sentenced to 99 years. I'm like, Lord, this can't be real. I thought it was a mistaken identity. The best lie is partial truth. For 22 years, only two people knew the truth until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. podcasts. and start listening on the free iHeartRadio app today. I'm Investigator Slater, host of the Psychopedia True Crime Podcast. Spooky season is officially here, and for the entire month of October, we are transforming into Spookopedia. All episodes, including bonus content, will delve into true crime with a dark twist, blending the spooky, creepy, gory, and the haunted. No matter the story we cover by the end of each episode, you are going to feel it. Make sure to follow and listen to Psychopedia everywhere you get your podcasts. you know writing about your dad's case for about two years now so um i'm so happy to finally see y'all and meet y'all and get to hang out with you. In October of 2021, I asked TaForest's kids if we could all get together and talk. So we meet up on a Saturday afternoon at his oldest daughter, Shanae Poole's place. It's a light-filled condo in downtown Birmingham. Her golden doodle, named Banks, meanders around, wagging his tail at everyone. And his kids immediately start to share memories of their dad. I remember going and realizing how short he was, though. He's so short when we took a picture on side of each other. Yes, I have a picture of y'all, Maurice. You like tower over daddy, and I'm his same height. I'm Shanae Poole. I am the oldest daughter of Tafaris. Shanae has his smile. I'm Maurice Myers, and I'm the fourth oldest of the forest. His son, Maurice Myers, has his eyes and nose. I'm Tremaine Perry. I'm the oldest cub. His oldest child, Tremaine Perry, has his voice and laugh. And I'm Akira Yalala, and I'm the baby cub. And Akeria, who goes by Muffin, his youngest, looks like she could be a twin to T'Forest in his younger years. T'Forest has one other son named Robbie Foster, but he was unable to join us for this gathering because he was living in Colorado at the time. He also looks like his father's twin. An inside joke is these siblings all share a common attribute from their dad. My head, man, we all got these big heads if you haven't noticed. Like the forehead. That's what's really big. It's the forehead. He blessed us all with that. I know. That's why I grew my head. See, I know I was the oldest, so I saw maybe a lot more than they did, you know what I mean? But I knew what was going on, like, when I stopped seeing them, you know what I'm saying? Because they told me, like, right off the bat. So how old were you when he? About six or seven. This is Tremaine, the oldest cub. I was getting ready to ask my mom to take me to my pops house, like, I want to go with my daddy this weekend. And she was like, you won't be able to go this weekend because he's not going to be there. So I'm like, what you mean? Where he at? I wait on him to come back. She's like, no, there might be a minute before he come back. And that's when I ended up calling my grandma, and she just let me know what was going on just right then. And that kid kind of killed my spirit, you know what I'm saying? I'm thinking like if he ain't did nothing wrong, then why he gone? I could never get an answer for that. Nobody could ever answer that, you know what I'm saying? So just knowing that this man is sitting behind bars 20-plus years for something that he didn't do, that's heartbreaking. You ought to think about how life would be if it hadn't happened, if things could be reversed. You think about a lot of stuff, but you can never get that, you know what I'm saying? Sinead also remembers trying to put the pieces together about why she had to go to the prison to see her dad. So I'm home with my mom and then I go visit my dad, but I didn't realize that that wasn't normal until we get into grade school and I see children with their two parents home. And so now I'm like, okay, this is something that's not, this is not adding up, something that's not right. to help me understand what's happening. And then it's like, okay, well, he's away, but he's innocent. So what does innocent mean? I'm a kid. I don't understand what that means. He's there for something that he didn't do. Okay, well, why can't he just come home then? And so then I begin to get frustrated with him because I'm like, okay, well, if you didn't do it, then you could just come home. But clearly, it doesn't work that way. And then as I got older... Even though their father wasn't at home, Teforis' kids didn't stop seeing him. They would get in the car with their grandmother, Donna, to Forrest's mother to make the 210-mile drive from Birmingham to Holman Prison, three hours each way. I just remember always riding. That's me. And I was so young, and I was like, oh my, this is the longest car ride. It's almost like you're driving to Florida going down there. It's in the middle of nowhere. There's really no road to lead to anywhere out there. I believe. Yeah, we took those trips. In Alabama, visits with men on death row are done in the visiting yard, the same area Teforist met with his attorney, Ty. It's called the yard, but it's indoors, like a big cafeteria lined with vending machines. And of course, Grandma. So what I remember is quarters. Grandma used to have a sack. Yeah. Full of quarters. A sack of quarters. The freezer bags you use. Yeah, the zip lock. We had those full of quarters of nickels. All the change we can get. But before they got into the prison to see their dad, with the big bag of quarters so everyone could get their favorite snacks and candy from the prison yard vending machines, to Forrest's kids had to go through prison security where guards searched them and patted them down. So, look at, thinking back on a muffin, I didn't really think about this until now, just kind of how violating it kind of was with them, because they had to search us, like, the same way. Very violent. Yeah. I was like, I didn't even want to go back. Searching you like you finna go with me. Yeah, and we were children. Basically touching all of you, and I was just like, this is a little weird, I'm not comfortable with you touching me. I mean, I'm just a kid. I'm not bringing nothing in here. So it was just real violating. I was like, I really don't want to come back, but I want to so I can see my dad. I just don't want you to touch me. And we couldn't, you know, touch him whenever we were in there. So, of course, you know, you want to sit on your dad's lap. You want to lay on him and hug on him, and you can't do that. You have to keep your distance from each other. And like Tremaine said, there's never enough time. It always seems like it's just, we just got here. And we got to turn back around and get on the road trip again. The visits were just a few hours, once a month at most. But it's where and how they got to know their father. Their relationships with their father are marked by both his absence and his presence. They admire his strength, the way he loves to hear about their lives when they talk on the phone, and how he never makes them feel like their problems are small. When he calls you and you just want to talk about the good things, and he's lived this life too, so he's all right, so now what's really going on? Like, I can hear it in your voice, okay, princess, I'm not right. And I'd never like to tell him anything bad because he's just, there's nothing that he could do, But he's like, this is my way of being a father to you. This is how I can parent you. So allow me to do that. And then you feel so much better after you talk to him about it. He is. Because he's going to make you laugh. Oh, he's going to make you laugh. He's going to make you laugh. He'll keep you laughing. I'll be like, okay, I'm not mad anymore. Yeah. Thank you. Right. And it is hard to be mad. You know, it is hard to be angry or mad or kind of self-soaked because. And you think about his situation. Right. And he always asks, so what do you eat? I never want to tell him what I ate for dinner. Never. I don't either. I hate telling him. I know he can't eat the same, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. But he wants to know what you ate. He wants to know. Or he wants, like, what we did today. Like, if he would be on the phone with Tremaine and Maurice, he'd be like, yeah, I talked to Tremaine and Maurice the other day, and they were out somewhere. But he won't say they were. He'd be like, we were. So, like, he's living through my brothers. Like, whatever they do, he thinks, like, he's out with them. Yeah. We're human bodies. We have been affected. These are men that missed out on their father raising them. He's missed the birth of multiple grandchildren. He's missed milestones, us completing college and getting our first big girl jobs and purchasing our first homes. Like, these are really important things that he has missed out on. And so you have space and you have time between all of us that we literally cannot get back. Like, there's nothing that we could do about it. And so the least that you could do is be accountable for what was done. And I think that that's all we're asking for. At this point, we're not trying to point the finger at anybody. We just want true justice to be served, and we just want him to come home. and for there to be some type of accountability held. And it's frustrating. It's disheartening. But it's like, well, we just got to keep fighting because we got to fight for Daddy. We got to fight to get Daddy home. I think we've bypassed the point of pointing the finger. And, you know, we're still hurting. We're still angry. We're still confused, upset. We have a lot of emotions. But we just want him to come home. Why is Taforist Johnson still on Alabama's death row? Why is he still locked in a cell when so many people, including the prosecutor who argued to put him there, are calling for a new trial? In early October 2023, the United States Supreme Court announced it would not review Teforis Johnson's case. But Teforis' legal team continues to fight for him. They have appeals pending in both state and federal courts. This is where we find ourselves, unable to tell you how this story ends. I plan to stay here with DeForest, his family, his children, his lawyers, and everyone else who believes in him. We'll continue to hold him in the light of truth. This is a free call from... DeForest, yes. An incarcerated individual at Alabama Department of Corrections. This call is not private. It will be recorded and may be martyred. You may start the conversation now. Hey, Daddy. Hey, Princess. Hi. What you doing? I'm good. How was your day? It was good. Long today. Still trying to get used to it. TaForest calls his family from prison whenever he can. But his oldest daughter, Shanae, also keeps his cards and letters in a K-Swiss shoebox under her bed. If I had to describe this card, there is a beehive on the front with a few bees buzzing around. and it's dated January the 5th, 2003. Like all the people who love to Forrest Johnson, his five kids and 15 grandkids, his mother Donna, his aunts, uncles, and cousins, they read the words he sent them over the years when they need to hold him close. It reads, I love you and can't wait to see you and hold you in my arms again. You, underlined, are the reason Daddy has a spirit to get up every day and has hope that there will be a better day up ahead for me. And he says, Shanae, Daddy wants you to be a good young lady and do what your mother asks of you. I love you and I hope to see you again real soon. Be good, all right? It's taforestjohnson.com. And a special thanks to the family of Taforest Johnson, who have generously shared so much for this series. Ear Witness is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Company No. 1. Executive producers are Jason Flom, Jeff Kimpler, Kevin Wardus, and me, Beth Shelburne. The investigative reporting for this series was done by me and Mara McNamara. Producers are Mara McNamara, Hannah Beal, and Jackie Pauley. Kara Kornhaber is our senior producer. Britt Spangler is our sound designer. Additional story editing from Marie Sutton. Fact check help from Catherine Newhand. And special thanks to Taforist 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 lavaforgood.com slash earwitness. I'm Nancy Glass, host of the Burden of Guilt Season 2 podcast. This is a story about a horrendous lie that destroyed two families. Late one night, Bobby Gumpwright became the victim of a random crime. The perpetrator was sentenced to 99 years until a confession changed everything. I was a monster. Listen to Burden of Guilt Season 2 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Wells Adams with By Order of the Faithfuls podcast alongside my fellow faithfuls and co-hosts Tamara Judge and Dolores Catania. The three of us have been watching this season of The Traders, and we've been inside that castle. So we have insight unlike many others. This season of The Traders may be the best we've ever seen. Listen to by Order of the Faithfuls on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The more you listen to your kids, the closer you'll be. So we asked kids, what do you want your parents to hear? I feel sometimes that I'm not listened to. I would just want you to listen to me more often and evaluate situations with me and lead me towards success. Listening is a form of love. Find resources to help you support your kids and their emotional well-being at SoundItOutTogether.org. That's SoundItOutTogether.org. Brought to you by the Ad Council and Pivotal.
