Articles of Interest: Juror Who Sentenced Toforest Johnson to Death Now Believes He Is Innocent

Monique Hicks, one of the twelve peo­ple who served on the Alabama jury that con­vict­ed Toforest Johnson and sen­tenced him to death, said in an op-ed pub­lished on April 22, 2024 that she now believes Mr. Johnson deserves a new tri­al. Ms. Hicks recounts the new evi­dence that has come to light in the case and writes, ​“My role in the wrong­ful con­vic­tion of an inno­cent man keeps me awake at night.” 

Mr. Johnson’s con­vic­tion rest­ed on the tes­ti­mo­ny of a sin­gle wit­ness who, despite not know­ing Mr. Johnson, claimed to hear his voice con­fess­ing to the crime on the phone and who was secret­ly paid a $5,000 reward. For two decades, local offi­cials repeat­ed­ly denied the exis­tence of any reward paid to their star wit­ness. Only after defense coun­sel received infor­ma­tion from a retired state employ­ee did the state final­ly admit it. Numerous Alabama legal offi­cials sup­port a new tri­al, includ­ing the cur­rent District Attorney, the orig­i­nal tri­al pros­e­cu­tor, a for­mer Chief Justice, and a for­mer Attorney General.