According to more than 10 witnesses, Toforest was across town at the exact time Deputy Hardy was killed. There is no physical evidence linking him to the crime in any way. Prosecutors presented no eyewitnesses. And he has maintained his innocence since the day he was arrested.

Prosecutors could not make up their mind about who committed the crime. At five different court hearings, they presented five different stories about what they claimed happened. The State’s case against Toforest hinged on the testimony of one witness: a woman who did not know him and had never met him claimed to hear Toforest confess to the murder in an eavesdropped phone call. She was paid $5000 for her testimony, a fact that was not finally revealed to Toforest’s attorneys until almost two decades later, when prosecutors revealed paperwork they said had been “misfiled.”

Now the Jefferson County District Attorney, Danny Carr, has joined the call for a new trial. So has the original prosecutor who led the prosecution against Toforest. Despite all that, the State is still seeking Toforest Johnson’s execution.

But it is not too late to fix this tragic mistake.