Earwitness Podcast Creator Beth Shelburne on Toforest Johnson’s Case

In this month’s episode of Discussions with DPI, Managing Director Anne Holsinger speaks with Beth Shelburne, a journalist who has reported on the criminal legal system for over 25 years and creator of the podcast Earwitness. Released in 2023 to critical acclaim, Earwitness tells the story of Toforest Johnson, a death-sentenced man who is facing execution in Alabama despite strong evidence of his innocence. On November 14, 2024, Mr. Johnson filed a petition with the Jefferson County Circuit Court requesting a new hearing, the latest in a series of appeals.

“I realized that this is such a protracted injustice with so many twists and turns over a quarter of a century. So many people have been exploited in the process that it really is a case that’s emblematic of many terrible issues in our criminal justice system, and I felt like in order to capture all of that in its totality, I wanted to slow down and really unpack this case in a meaningful way,” explains Ms. Shelburne on why she decided to create the Earwitness podcast. She shares the challenges she and her team faced, including the ​“fading memories of people … [who] just couldn’t remember the finite details that we felt were so crucial … to pin down. Luckily, we were able to get our hands on quite a bit of source material through.”