Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey commuted Toforest Johnson's death sentence, citing doubts about the evidence in a 1995 deputy's killing.

This is a rare move from a governor who has overseen 27 executions and says she still supports the death penalty. She was careful to say it is not a finding of innocence. Johnson's conviction stands, so the fight his lawyers and the Jefferson County district attorney have waged for a new trial is not over. What changed Tuesday is that the state will no longer try to execute him.

Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, commuted the death sentence of Toforest Johnson to life in prison without the possibility of parole, the Associated Press, WSFA and WVTM 13 reported. Johnson was convicted of capital murder in the 1995 killing of Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy and has spent more than half his life on death row, WSFA reported. The Cullman Tribune reported that the commutation changes his punishment but does not overturn the conviction, grant him a new trial or release him from prison.

"When presented with Mr. Johnson's case, I had concerns there was not enough direct evidence to carry out the most serious punishment, death," Ivey said in a statement, according to the AP. "My decision is not a determination of innocence, but a recognition that the circumstances of this case justify commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment, without possibility of parole." She added, "Mr. Johnson will serve the remainder of his life behind bars for the senseless murder of Deputy Sheriff William Hardy," and said Hardy "died a hero," WSFA reported. WVTM 13 reported that in a letter dated Oct. 20 to Alabama Department of Corrections Commissioner Greg Lovelace, Ivey said she had notified a designated member of Hardy's family, Beverly Hardy, and Attorney General Steve Marshall before acting.

Hardy, a 23-year law enforcement veteran, was shot and killed July 19, 1995, in the parking lot of the Crown Sterling Suites hotel in Birmingham while working off-duty security, The Cullman Tribune reported. WVTM 13 reported he was shot twice in the head. Johnson's first trial ended in a mistrial when jurors could not agree, and a second jury convicted him in 1998 and recommended death by a 10-2 vote, according to The Cullman Tribune.

Doubts about the case have come from inside the justice system. Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr urged a court to grant Johnson a new trial in 2020 and renewed that position in a 2024 filing, The Cullman Tribune reported. "A thorough review and investigation of the entire case leaves no confidence in the integrity of Johnson's conviction. The interest of justice demands that Johnson be granted a new trial," Carr wrote, according to WVTM 13. The station reported Carr cited alibi witnesses who placed Johnson elsewhere and questioned the state's key witness, a woman who said she overheard Johnson confess on a three-way phone call she was eavesdropping on, noting she was paid $5,000 for her testimony. WSFA reported that in 2025 former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley and a group of former state and federal prosecutors also asked a Jefferson County judge to grant a new trial.

The Alabama Attorney General's Office has continued to defend Johnson's conviction and sentence, and Ivey thanked its Capital Litigation Division in her statement, The Cullman Tribune reported. Ivey said the decision does not signal any change in her support for capital punishment. WSFA reported Johnson is housed at Holman Prison in Atmore and that 154 people are on Alabama's death row. A commutation ends the death sentence. It does not decide whether the conviction was right, a question Johnson's new-trial effort is still asking the courts. All defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.