WEBVTT - Episode 6 | Misfiled 0:00:12.640 --> 0:00:16.239 Last time on ear witness Bally that. 0:00:16.320 --> 0:00:18.759 Was walking that door, scanting up on this table and 0:00:18.840 --> 0:00:20.120 say what she said. 0:00:20.880 --> 0:00:21.920 We got a full table. 0:00:22.000 --> 0:00:24.680 Now we got all the ever this we. 0:00:24.720 --> 0:00:28.720 Need this, Alison, would you tell us about the information 0:00:28.840 --> 0:00:30.240 that you have for us? 0:00:31.160 --> 0:00:36.239 Yes, my daughter to use her three way to call for. 0:00:36.280 --> 0:00:39.000 His homeboy, and he named his the old name is 0:00:39.080 --> 0:00:43.000 to Barge Johnson. We had a weak case. It's based 0:00:43.040 --> 0:00:44.720 on testimony in one witness. 0:00:45.479 --> 0:00:48.880 The only evidence supposedly they had against was this ear 0:00:48.920 --> 0:00:52.919 witness who had never heard him speak before, who had 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:54.240 no idea who he was. 0:00:55.440 --> 0:01:00.640 This case is all about alternative worlds that are in 0:01:01.360 --> 0:01:05.360 conflict with each other and in conflict with truth, and 0:01:05.400 --> 0:01:08.000 in conflict with what our justice system stands for. 0:01:09.040 --> 0:01:12.280 We forget sometime that there was a third person on 0:01:12.319 --> 0:01:15.319 that phone who told him to discredit to what this 0:01:15.440 --> 0:01:17.959 lady says. She heard, you know what I mean? And 0:01:18.000 --> 0:01:20.440 now how close, how much closer can you get than that? 0:01:21.760 --> 0:01:26.000 Why did the jury believe this woman who eavesdrop on 0:01:26.080 --> 0:01:29.400 the call over you who actually had on the call. 0:01:30.200 --> 0:01:33.960 I don't understand. I never understood that. You know, the 0:01:34.280 --> 0:01:37.400 victim's family deserve to know what happened. To their loved one. 0:01:38.000 --> 0:01:42.960 But they get no justice, no peace out of a 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:46.880 wrongful conviction, you know, And this is simply a case 0:01:46.920 --> 0:02:14.200 of does anybody all do. 0:02:01.120 --> 0:02:03.560 Do you remember the first time you met him? 0:02:04.240 --> 0:02:04.520 At you? 0:02:06.000 --> 0:02:09.359 Ty Alper was just starting out his legal career at 0:02:09.360 --> 0:02:12.480 the Southern Center for Human Rights when he met to 0:02:12.600 --> 0:02:16.600 Forest Johnson. To Forest was one of the first people 0:02:16.720 --> 0:02:21.120 on death row that Ty'd been assigned to represent. In 0:02:21.240 --> 0:02:24.720 January of two thousand and three, ty gets into one 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:27.680 of the old volvos that the Southern Center had in 0:02:27.720 --> 0:02:31.600 their parking lot in Atlanta and drives four hours south 0:02:31.880 --> 0:02:34.519 to Holman Prison and at Moore, Alabama. 0:02:35.480 --> 0:02:38.880 The first time I met him was down at Holman. 0:02:39.880 --> 0:02:44.680 I was by myself and well, I was going to 0:02:44.680 --> 0:02:47.160 go down and make sure that he was okay with 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:50.480 us representing him and to sort of tell him where 0:02:50.480 --> 0:02:51.200 his case was. 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:56.000 Tye is twenty nine years old, and here's what he knows. 0:02:57.600 --> 0:03:00.720 To Forest Johnson is just eight months old than he is, 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.160 and he's been on death row for over four years 0:03:04.720 --> 0:03:14.680 for a crime he says he did not commit. When 0:03:14.720 --> 0:03:17.920 ty finally gets inside the prison, he's taken to a 0:03:18.040 --> 0:03:21.600 room called the visiting Yard, but it isn't a yard 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.440 at all. It looks like a middle school cafeteria surrounded 0:03:25.480 --> 0:03:31.200 by plexiglass. Outside the plexiglass, correctional officers and men in 0:03:31.240 --> 0:03:35.920 prison uniforms, white slacks, white shirt with Alabama Department of 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:41.480 Corrections stamped on the back are walking by. Inside, there's 0:03:41.600 --> 0:03:45.000 no ac and the sad attempt of cooling the room 0:03:45.120 --> 0:03:48.480 is left to metal fans that hang in the corners 0:03:49.400 --> 0:03:52.080 to Forrest sits at a table in a plastic chair 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:56.320 across from Ty. Ty tries to talk quietly so he 0:03:56.360 --> 0:03:59.760 doesn't disturb other lawyers working with their clients on the yard, 0:04:00.320 --> 0:04:03.280 but loud enough to be heard over the roar of 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:05.119 the fans. 0:04:06.040 --> 0:04:09.040 And I remember saying to him, you know, mister Johnson, 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:12.440 I want you to know we're at the very early 0:04:12.480 --> 0:04:16.800 stages of your appeals. There's many rounds of appeals to go. 0:04:17.160 --> 0:04:19.440 We're going to file a petition in the US Supreme Court. 0:04:19.920 --> 0:04:22.000 Then we're going to go back into state court. If 0:04:22.000 --> 0:04:24.039 we lose there, we're going to go back into federal court. 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:28.080 And all this could take many years. And he just 0:04:28.080 --> 0:04:34.600 started crying, and I assumed that he was upset because 0:04:34.600 --> 0:04:36.280 I knew that he had claimed that he was claiming 0:04:36.320 --> 0:04:39.320 he was innocent, and I assumed that he was upset 0:04:39.400 --> 0:04:42.039 that this was going to take so long, and I 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:44.479 asked him what was wrong, and he said that he 0:04:44.680 --> 0:04:47.680 was so happy because he had just assumed that they 0:04:47.680 --> 0:04:50.040 could come any minute and take him to be executed. 0:04:50.920 --> 0:04:52.960 And it was just the thing that struck me the most, 0:04:53.000 --> 0:04:56.880 because not only had he been screwed over in pretty 0:04:56.960 --> 0:04:59.760 much every possible way you can be, but nobody was 0:04:59.760 --> 0:05:02.120 telling anything about what was going on in this case. 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:07.640 But to Forrest's days without a lawyer to fight for 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:11.520 him are over. It's now up to Tie and the 0:05:11.560 --> 0:05:14.400 team of lawyers at the Southern Center to do what 0:05:14.600 --> 0:05:19.640 no one has done before, thoroughly investigate to Forrest's conviction, 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:23.920 a conviction that hinged on the word and credibility of 0:05:23.960 --> 0:05:33.960 a single witness. Violet Ellison. I'm Beth Shelburne. This is 0:05:34.000 --> 0:06:08.560 ear witness, Chapter six Misfiled. After Ty leaves Holman prison, 0:06:09.080 --> 0:06:11.720 he and the rest of Taforest's new legal team go 0:06:11.839 --> 0:06:15.279 through the case. They need to understand how their new 0:06:15.320 --> 0:06:19.600 client ended up on death row. They hear about DeForest's 0:06:19.680 --> 0:06:23.000 alibi that he was at Tea's place when Deputy Hardy 0:06:23.120 --> 0:06:29.080 was shot. They learn about Yolanda Chambers changing stories. They 0:06:29.120 --> 0:06:34.160 read how the state presented conflicting theories at different trials. 0:06:34.880 --> 0:06:38.800 Now it's clear to the legal team to Forest Johnson 0:06:39.120 --> 0:06:44.960 did not kill Deputy Hardy. The state's case completely revolved 0:06:45.040 --> 0:06:48.040 around Violet Ellison's testimony. 0:06:48.320 --> 0:06:51.200 So we knew that that was a potentially fruitful area 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.640 to investigate because she was the state's whole case. 0:06:54.800 --> 0:06:58.080 They need to figure out whether they can challenge Violet 0:06:58.080 --> 0:07:02.760 Ellison's testimony. If they can show that it wasn't reliable, 0:07:03.120 --> 0:07:06.120 they can argue that to Forrest deserves a new trial. 0:07:07.000 --> 0:07:10.640 So they need to know why did Violet Ellison come 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:15.920 forward in the first place. Prosecutor Jeff Wallace told two 0:07:16.040 --> 0:07:20.760 juries that Violet was a credible witness, someone who overheard 0:07:20.880 --> 0:07:24.280 to Forrest Johnson admit to the crime, and she came 0:07:24.400 --> 0:07:28.200 forward because it was the right thing to do. But 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:33.239 there were other reasons Violet Ellison might have come forward. 0:07:34.200 --> 0:07:36.520 We knew the reward was offered because it was all 0:07:36.520 --> 0:07:39.840 over the papers, but we didn't know who got it 0:07:39.960 --> 0:07:41.560 or if Violet Elison got it. 0:07:42.640 --> 0:07:45.800 The reward was not a secret. It was mentioned in 0:07:45.880 --> 0:07:48.760 press releases and reported on TV news. 0:07:50.600 --> 0:07:52.600 So the next step was okay. Well, were there questions 0:07:52.640 --> 0:07:56.320 about her credibility that the jury never heard, and an 0:07:56.320 --> 0:08:00.320 obvious one was what was she paid for her testimony? 0:08:08.440 --> 0:08:12.280 If Violet Ellison knew about the reward money before trial, 0:08:12.720 --> 0:08:16.160 or even if she had qualified for the reward, the 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:21.920 jury should have been told this when they heard her testimony. 0:08:22.760 --> 0:08:27.640 The legal issues here get complicated fast, but it's important 0:08:27.640 --> 0:08:32.480 to understand that the prosecution must turn over anything that 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:36.600 would be helpful to the defense. It can be a 0:08:36.720 --> 0:08:41.040 lead on another suspect, or some forensic report that casts 0:08:41.200 --> 0:08:46.240 doubt on a piece of evidence, or information that calls 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:51.800 the credibility of a state's witness into question. This is 0:08:51.840 --> 0:08:56.079 called Brady information, after a famous US Supreme Court case 0:08:56.200 --> 0:08:57.679 called Brady v. Maryland. 0:08:58.559 --> 0:08:59.079 And if a. 0:08:59.040 --> 0:09:03.360 Court finds out later that prosecutors failed to turn over 0:09:03.440 --> 0:09:08.520 Brady information, that's a constitutional violation and the court will 0:09:08.640 --> 0:09:22.080 order a new trial. So if prosecutors knew that Violet 0:09:22.120 --> 0:09:25.560 Ellison came forward looking for the reward, they should have 0:09:25.640 --> 0:09:28.800 told to Forrest trial lawyers about it, and then they 0:09:28.880 --> 0:09:31.720 could have brought it up at trial. They could have 0:09:31.800 --> 0:09:34.920 told the jury when you go back and deliberate about 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:40.199 Violet Ellison's testimony. Remember, there's a reward being offered and 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:44.440 she wants that reward. Are you sure money isn't part 0:09:44.440 --> 0:09:48.360 of the equation here? But the jury never heard anything 0:09:48.400 --> 0:09:49.280 about the reward. 0:09:50.400 --> 0:09:51.960 She was very credible. 0:09:53.160 --> 0:09:57.160 Monique Hicks was on the jury into Forrest's second trial 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:01.880 and she voted to convict to Forrest on Violet Ellison's testimony. 0:10:02.920 --> 0:10:05.640 She just seemed very truthful, like she had nothing to 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.760 gain by coming forward. She had heard this information and 0:10:08.800 --> 0:10:11.839 she felt like I have to share this. She was 0:10:11.880 --> 0:10:15.800 a very credible witness compared to some of the others 0:10:15.800 --> 0:10:19.080 that took the sand like we believed her. Obviously we 0:10:19.160 --> 0:10:21.160 believed her because we convicted him and it was on 0:10:21.200 --> 0:10:22.000 her testimony. 0:10:23.480 --> 0:10:29.240 Overturning a conviction is damn near impossible. Our system prioritizes 0:10:29.360 --> 0:10:33.800 finality in part because a jury's verdict is considered a 0:10:33.880 --> 0:10:38.480 community statement and given great weight. So for to Forrest 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.839 to get a new trial, his lawyers needed to prove 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:46.240 two things that Violet Ellison came forward with her story 0:10:46.360 --> 0:10:50.440 in the hopes of getting the reward, and that police 0:10:50.480 --> 0:10:56.160 and prosecutors were aware of this true motivation. There's one 0:10:56.160 --> 0:11:01.760 big problem. If Violet Ellison had been paid, documentation of 0:11:01.800 --> 0:11:05.600 the payment should have been into Forrest's case file, but 0:11:05.640 --> 0:11:11.360 there wasn't anything there. Still, Tye and the other attorneys 0:11:11.440 --> 0:11:15.280 had a hunch that Violet Ellison got the money. The 0:11:15.360 --> 0:11:19.480 legal team tried calling everywhere they could, the Sheriff's office, 0:11:19.760 --> 0:11:24.079 the Governor's office, the Record's division. What should have been 0:11:24.200 --> 0:11:30.200 just a simple phone call turned into a multi week endeavor. Finally, 0:11:30.640 --> 0:11:34.160 someone at the Governor's office said they might have something 0:11:35.320 --> 0:11:36.720 and would send over a fax. 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:41.400 I do remember us all hovering around the fact machine 0:11:41.440 --> 0:11:42.920 waiting to see what it was, because it was the 0:11:42.920 --> 0:11:45.160 first time that anyone had acknowledged that there might be 0:11:45.200 --> 0:11:46.840 something that was helpful. 0:11:48.280 --> 0:11:51.840 The fax machine spits out a piece of paper signed 0:11:51.880 --> 0:11:55.600 by Judge Alfred Bayhackle, the man who presided over to 0:11:55.720 --> 0:12:01.439 Forrest's trials and sentenced him to death. The paper authorized 0:12:01.880 --> 0:12:05.840 Violet Ellison to receive five thousand dollars in reward money 0:12:06.240 --> 0:12:09.560 in exchange for her testimony that led to the conviction 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:11.000 of to Forest Johnson. 0:12:12.440 --> 0:12:15.640 That was when we knew, okay, she did know about 0:12:15.640 --> 0:12:19.000 this reward. She was motivated by the reward when she testified, 0:12:20.200 --> 0:12:23.400 and the judge knew about it in an order that 0:12:23.600 --> 0:12:25.360 was not included in the court file. 0:12:27.840 --> 0:12:31.880 For to Forest's legal team, this was a huge first step. 0:12:32.800 --> 0:12:35.920 The language in the court order said that Violet Ellison 0:12:36.040 --> 0:12:40.319 came forward pursuant to the public offer of a reward. 0:12:41.240 --> 0:12:46.000 And again, this authorization document was signed by the judge. 0:12:46.480 --> 0:12:49.680 It's an official court document. It should have been into 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:53.480 Forest's court file right there where everyone could see it, 0:12:54.640 --> 0:12:59.120 but it wasn't. Instead, to Forest's legal team had to 0:12:59.160 --> 0:13:03.480 go on a bureaquecratic goose chase to find it. Was 0:13:03.559 --> 0:13:08.360 someone trying to hide something what other documents were missing 0:13:08.360 --> 0:13:16.560 from the public file. So a young investigator working with 0:13:16.640 --> 0:13:21.480 Taforest's legal team named Jason Marx went right to the source. 0:13:22.440 --> 0:13:26.559 He walked up to Violet Ellison's house, holding Judge Bahackele's 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:30.440 court order that authorized her payment in one hand and 0:13:30.559 --> 0:13:32.320 knocked on her front door with the other. 0:13:33.320 --> 0:13:35.080 When I showed up at her house, he said something 0:13:35.120 --> 0:13:37.240 about the phone calls, and I said, Oh, I'm not 0:13:37.320 --> 0:13:39.160 here to talk to you about the phone calls. I'm 0:13:39.160 --> 0:13:41.320 here to talk about the reward that you got. And 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:44.120 that's when she said I didn't get a reward, I 0:13:44.160 --> 0:13:46.280 was like, oh, well that's funny. I was like, I 0:13:46.320 --> 0:13:48.680 have some paperwork here that says you got a reward, 0:13:49.679 --> 0:13:52.920 and so basically yeah. So basically confronted her with the document, 0:13:53.040 --> 0:13:55.640 she said, Oh, yeah, I did get a reward, got 0:13:55.640 --> 0:13:57.199 five thousand dollars. 0:13:58.000 --> 0:14:03.320 After initially denying it, Violet Ellison told Jason the state 0:14:03.440 --> 0:14:07.960 paid her five thousand dollars for testifying against to Forrest Johnson. 0:14:09.000 --> 0:14:11.240 We knew when we got the judge's order that he 0:14:11.320 --> 0:14:14.040 had authorized the payment, and then she told us that 0:14:14.080 --> 0:14:17.559 she got paid, so we knew it all. When you 0:14:17.600 --> 0:14:20.600 take a step back, he's on death row because the 0:14:20.720 --> 0:14:23.880 jury believed a woman who they didn't know was being 0:14:23.920 --> 0:14:28.840 paid for her testimony, and that should cause real concerns 0:14:28.840 --> 0:14:30.880 and questions about the validity of the conviction. 0:14:32.480 --> 0:14:36.000 To Forest's legal team files a Brady claim against the 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:40.320 state that argues the jury into Forest's trial should have 0:14:40.400 --> 0:14:44.760 heard about the reward, Violet Ellison knew about the reward 0:14:44.920 --> 0:14:48.480 when she came forward, and that the state suppressed the 0:14:48.600 --> 0:14:55.360 information on purpose. The state denies everything. They deny any 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:59.320 Brady violation, and they deny all of the allegations into 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:04.240 Forest's including that Violet Ellison was motivated by the reward 0:15:05.000 --> 0:15:08.880 and that she was paid five thousand dollars. But to 0:15:08.960 --> 0:15:13.440 Forest's legal team has evidence to the contrary, the court 0:15:13.600 --> 0:15:17.479 order that was faxed to them and Violet Ellison herself. 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.560 After the state submits a written denial of all of 0:15:21.600 --> 0:15:25.200 the charges brought by to Forest's legal team, the case 0:15:25.240 --> 0:15:29.920 heads to court, but Alabama courts won't hear the case. 0:15:30.560 --> 0:15:35.400 They say the reward doesn't qualify as Brady, so the 0:15:35.480 --> 0:15:41.040 appeal takes years to make its way through the courts. 0:15:46.360 --> 0:15:50.240 When to Forest and Ty first met, to Forrest's five 0:15:50.400 --> 0:15:53.520 kids were all under the age of ten, and as 0:15:53.560 --> 0:15:58.080 the Brady claim crawls through the legal system, seventeen years 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:03.160 go by, Trus's oldest daughter has graduated college and his 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:11.200 four other kids are having kids of their own. Finally, 0:16:11.680 --> 0:16:14.360 to Forest's legal team gets the case in front of 0:16:14.400 --> 0:16:19.280 the United States Supreme Court. The justices tell the Alabama 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:23.840 courts that they're wrong for not reviewing to forest Brady claim. 0:16:24.880 --> 0:16:28.960 The State of Alabama must hear the evidence about the reward. 0:16:35.200 --> 0:16:38.680 Ahead of the hearing, Judge Teresa Pulliam gives the state 0:16:39.200 --> 0:16:40.760 very clear orders. 0:16:41.440 --> 0:16:44.200 You have to turn over everything, everything that you have 0:16:44.280 --> 0:16:46.480 that concerns a reward payment, you have to turn it 0:16:46.520 --> 0:16:48.720 over to mister Johnson's lawyers. 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:54.000 So the state gives to Forest's legal team what they 0:16:54.160 --> 0:16:57.680 say are all of the documents about to Forest's case. 0:16:58.880 --> 0:17:02.920 An attorney representing the state tells Judge Pulliam the files 0:17:03.000 --> 0:17:07.720 contained nothing about anyone applying for a reward or being 0:17:07.800 --> 0:17:08.960 granted a reward. 0:17:09.960 --> 0:17:13.240 I think it was eight or nine banker's boxes of documents, 0:17:13.280 --> 0:17:17.800 and we went through every single page looking for any 0:17:17.840 --> 0:17:20.040 mention of a reward payment about Elson, and there was 0:17:20.040 --> 0:17:20.680 nothing in there. 0:17:21.800 --> 0:17:24.920 But then the Forest's legal team gets a tip from 0:17:24.960 --> 0:17:28.719 an insider. The woman who served as office manager at 0:17:28.720 --> 0:17:32.000 the Jefferson County District Attorney's office went to Forest was 0:17:32.040 --> 0:17:32.639 on trial. 0:17:33.680 --> 0:17:36.399 So she told us that if we were only looking 0:17:36.400 --> 0:17:40.359 in the case file, we weren't looking everywhere that the 0:17:40.400 --> 0:17:43.639 documentation might be because they also had a reward file 0:17:43.760 --> 0:17:46.920 that they kept separate from the case files that would 0:17:47.160 --> 0:17:52.560 include paperwork and documentation of witnesses who had sought rewards 0:17:53.000 --> 0:17:54.680 and or been paid rewards. 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:59.560 Reward information in the DA's office, according to this source, 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:05.760 was kept in a separate confidential file away from prosecutors 0:18:05.760 --> 0:18:10.399 involved in trials like Jeff Wallace. This meant he couldn't 0:18:10.400 --> 0:18:13.320 turn it over to to Forest lawyers because he didn't 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:17.719 know about it. To to Forest's attorneys, this meant the 0:18:17.760 --> 0:18:24.159 information about the reward was kept from them intentionally suppressed. 0:18:25.640 --> 0:18:28.760 The judge orders the DA's office to turn over this 0:18:29.119 --> 0:18:30.960 separate confidential file. 0:18:31.960 --> 0:18:35.879 We got an email that said, we found these documents. 0:18:35.880 --> 0:18:39.880 They had been misfiled, and here they are. 0:18:41.240 --> 0:18:46.399 Here they are. After seventeen years, the state finally turned 0:18:46.400 --> 0:18:50.439 over every document to Forest lawyers had asked for the 0:18:50.640 --> 0:18:56.120 hidden treasure trove, an application for the reward that signed 0:18:56.200 --> 0:19:00.040 by Violet Ellison, a copy of the actual check for 0:19:00.119 --> 0:19:04.880 five thousand dollars made out to Violet Ellison, an email 0:19:04.960 --> 0:19:09.000 exchange between District Attorney David Barber and the Governor's office 0:19:09.359 --> 0:19:13.040 about how to pay the reward, and a letter from 0:19:13.160 --> 0:19:17.200 DA Barber asking the governor to pay Violet Ellison the money, 0:19:17.680 --> 0:19:21.840 saying that she came forward pursuant to the offer of 0:19:21.880 --> 0:19:35.960 a reward. If this hidden information about the reward kept 0:19:36.160 --> 0:19:41.080 away from to Forest lawyers for seventeen years doesn't count 0:19:41.200 --> 0:19:48.919 as prosecutorial misconduct as a Brady violation. What does But 0:19:49.040 --> 0:19:54.280 according to the state, all of these documents were simply misfiled. 0:19:58.119 --> 0:20:03.040 When I hear misfiled, I imagine someone accidentally putting a 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:07.240 document into the wrong folder, or maybe a paper falling 0:20:07.280 --> 0:20:11.840 behind a cabinet. But that's not what happened. It sounds 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:15.600 like they had it organized in a file they kept 0:20:15.760 --> 0:20:19.720 explicitly for rewards, a file that no one seemed to 0:20:19.760 --> 0:20:24.359 know about except the office manager and the DA himself, 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:30.480 David Barber, who headed the prosecutor's office. How is this acceptable? 0:20:49.560 --> 0:20:49.840 Hello? 0:20:50.560 --> 0:20:55.200 Yes, I was calling for David Barber. Mister Barber. My 0:20:55.320 --> 0:20:59.560 name is Beth Shelburne. I called David Barber, who's now 0:20:59.600 --> 0:21:03.719 retired after serving as Jefferson County's top prosecutor for twenty 0:21:03.720 --> 0:21:07.320 four years. He was DA whent to Forest was tried 0:21:07.359 --> 0:21:11.639 for capital murder and personally involved in the reward issue. 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:15.280 He wrote the letter asking the governor to pay Violet Ellison. 0:21:16.480 --> 0:21:20.320 The defense team for mister Johnson didn't have any records 0:21:20.359 --> 0:21:24.120 about the reward until twenty nineteen. The Attorney General's office 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:29.119 produced the records and said they had been misfiled. Okay, 0:21:29.920 --> 0:21:33.720 does that sound strange to you or do you have 0:21:33.760 --> 0:21:35.120 any idea how that could. 0:21:34.960 --> 0:21:35.960 Have happened. 0:21:37.160 --> 0:21:39.560 The AG's office If they said he got misfiled, and 0:21:39.640 --> 0:21:42.000 I guess he got misfiled the human error, I guess. 0:21:42.520 --> 0:21:46.800 I don't know. I don't second guess people. I mean 0:21:46.920 --> 0:21:51.880 things happened. You have people working in agency's DA's offices. 0:21:53.880 --> 0:21:57.679 AG's office is Governor's office. Things getting misfiled, and I 0:21:57.720 --> 0:22:00.000 mean it, it happens. 0:22:00.200 --> 0:22:04.880 It happens. Actually, it did happen at least one other 0:22:05.000 --> 0:22:09.240 time on Barber's watch. In two thousand and four, a 0:22:09.280 --> 0:22:13.120 man named Montez Spradley was sentenced to death for murder 0:22:13.240 --> 0:22:16.359 based on the testimony of one witness, just like to 0:22:16.440 --> 0:22:22.119 Forest Johnson. Eventually, Spradley's lawyers discovered the star witness was 0:22:22.200 --> 0:22:26.679 paid ten thousand dollars for her testimony, but police and 0:22:26.760 --> 0:22:33.320 prosecutors never disclosed the reward payment because the reward documents 0:22:33.320 --> 0:22:37.560 were kept in this same separate file as Violet Ellison's 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:42.720 reward payment. The judge in that case also didn't disclose 0:22:42.760 --> 0:22:48.640 information about the reward. The judge was Gloria Bayhackle, the 0:22:48.680 --> 0:22:52.919 sister of Alfred Bayhackle, the judge into Forrest's trial. 0:22:59.440 --> 0:22:59.880 Hello. 0:23:01.560 --> 0:23:04.840 Hey, my name is Beth Sholburn. I was wondering if 0:23:05.720 --> 0:23:10.720 mister Alfred Bayhackle is here. My producer, Mara, and I 0:23:10.800 --> 0:23:13.920 went to Judge Alfred bay Hackle's house, hoping to talk 0:23:13.960 --> 0:23:18.840 to him about these off the record payment authorizations, but 0:23:19.200 --> 0:23:22.600 he told us that he wasn't interested in commenting on 0:23:22.960 --> 0:23:27.360 any specific cases or his time as a judge. Talk 0:23:27.480 --> 0:23:29.800 to you. It's about a murder case and several of 0:23:29.840 --> 0:23:31.000 the trials. 0:23:34.400 --> 0:23:36.439 I can't talk about, okay. 0:23:36.960 --> 0:23:40.520 Montes Bradley was able to prove his innocence and was 0:23:40.560 --> 0:23:45.159 released from prison in twenty fifteen, to Forrest and his 0:23:45.240 --> 0:24:23.720 attorneys hope for this same outcome. I first heard about 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:27.639 to Force Johnson's case in twenty nineteen, when the Brady 0:24:27.680 --> 0:24:31.320 hearing was scheduled. I was assigned to cover the hearing 0:24:31.440 --> 0:24:34.920 for WBrC, the news station where I used to work. 0:24:35.880 --> 0:24:40.840 This hearing would determine whether Violet Ellison's secret reward payment 0:24:41.200 --> 0:24:46.439 amounted to prosecutorial misconduct. I didn't know much about to 0:24:46.520 --> 0:24:49.680 Force case back then, only that he was on death 0:24:49.760 --> 0:24:52.280 row for a crime that he said he didn't commit 0:24:52.960 --> 0:24:56.240 and was convicted on the testimony of an ear witness 0:24:56.640 --> 0:25:01.479 who was paid off the record. In preparation for the hearing, 0:25:01.720 --> 0:25:05.560 I met with t Forest's cousin Antonio Green, and other 0:25:05.640 --> 0:25:09.480 family members at their uncle's house. They all said to 0:25:09.600 --> 0:25:12.320 Forrest was optimistic about the hearing, and. 0:25:12.640 --> 0:25:15.000 He tells me, he says all the time, well, you know, 0:25:15.080 --> 0:25:17.240 cause I know I didn't do this, so one day 0:25:17.440 --> 0:25:18.440 it'll all come out. 0:25:20.000 --> 0:25:20.280 Old. 0:25:20.440 --> 0:25:22.280 Yeah. 0:25:22.320 --> 0:25:24.639 On the day of the hearing, I only took a 0:25:24.680 --> 0:25:28.520 pen and notebook into Judge Pulliam's courtroom because she doesn't 0:25:28.600 --> 0:25:32.960 allow recording. I sat next to to Forest's mother, Donna, 0:25:33.200 --> 0:25:37.080 in a middle row, and I spotted to Forrest sitting 0:25:37.080 --> 0:25:41.080 at the defence table with his attorneys. This was the 0:25:41.119 --> 0:25:45.080 first and only time I've ever seen to Forrest Johnson 0:25:45.200 --> 0:25:49.440 in person. He was wearing an orange and white striped 0:25:49.680 --> 0:25:54.200 jail jumpsuit and was in handcuffs and leg irons. At 0:25:54.200 --> 0:25:57.679 one point, he turned and smiled at his family, and 0:25:57.720 --> 0:26:01.479 I heard his mom next to me say softly, hey baby. 0:26:03.119 --> 0:26:06.000 The courtroom was packed and much of the crowd was 0:26:06.040 --> 0:26:10.080 to Forrest's family and friends, but I also saw Jefferson 0:26:10.119 --> 0:26:14.080 County's newly elected district attorney seated in the first row 0:26:14.680 --> 0:26:18.480 Danny Carr. He's the first black man to be elected 0:26:18.520 --> 0:26:23.040 top prosecutor in Jefferson County. A month before this hearing, 0:26:23.760 --> 0:26:26.479 a group of faith leaders who knew about to Forest 0:26:26.600 --> 0:26:30.720 case published an open letter to Carr asking him to 0:26:30.840 --> 0:26:34.840 push for a new trial, but at this point Carr 0:26:34.920 --> 0:26:42.120 had not commented publicly on the case. The hearing starts 0:26:42.240 --> 0:26:46.600 at nine am to Forrest's attorneys present all of the 0:26:46.640 --> 0:26:50.600 documents that took the state seventeen years to turn over. 0:26:51.680 --> 0:26:55.680 They argue that the documents show the state suppressed evidence 0:26:55.720 --> 0:27:00.159 that Violet Ellison initially contacted police in pursuit of the 0:27:00.200 --> 0:27:04.439 reward money, and then the state hid that she was 0:27:04.440 --> 0:27:16.199 eventually paid five thousand dollars. Just after ten am, the 0:27:16.280 --> 0:27:22.720 state calls only one witness to testify, Violet Ellison. She's 0:27:22.760 --> 0:27:26.240 seventy seven years old and walks to the stand using 0:27:26.280 --> 0:27:30.160 a cane. She has short white hair and is dressed 0:27:30.359 --> 0:27:35.159 in a white blazer and black pants. After she's sworn in, 0:27:35.480 --> 0:27:39.400 Violet Ellison says that she knew the victim and followed 0:27:39.400 --> 0:27:43.399 the details about the murder and investigation by watching the 0:27:43.400 --> 0:27:49.080 news and reading the newspaper. But despite all that, and 0:27:49.160 --> 0:27:52.760 despite the fact that information about the reward was all 0:27:52.920 --> 0:27:57.240 over the news, she is vehement that she didn't know 0:27:57.359 --> 0:28:01.239 about the reward. She testifies that the first time she 0:28:01.320 --> 0:28:05.520 heard about the reward was after to Forrest was sentenced 0:28:05.560 --> 0:28:09.200 to death in July of two thousand and one, three 0:28:09.359 --> 0:28:14.439 years after he was convicted. She says that's when someone 0:28:14.440 --> 0:28:18.119 from the DA's office contacted her and asked her to 0:28:18.200 --> 0:28:24.560 come in and sign papers for the reward money. At 0:28:24.600 --> 0:28:28.679 the end of this five hour hearing, Judge Pulliam says 0:28:28.800 --> 0:28:31.840 she's not going to make a decision that day. She'll 0:28:31.880 --> 0:28:35.359 consider all of the evidence and then issue her ruling 0:28:36.640 --> 0:28:42.280 to Forrest's mother, Donna, sitting next to me, bursts into tears. 0:28:48.680 --> 0:28:51.800 After the hearing, I was going over my notes and 0:28:51.880 --> 0:28:56.840 noticed a big discrepancy between the state's story and Violet 0:28:56.880 --> 0:29:01.280 Ellison's testimony about what triggered the reward three years after 0:29:01.360 --> 0:29:06.520 to Forrest was convicted. In opening statements, the state lawyer 0:29:06.640 --> 0:29:11.080 said that Violet Ellison asked the DA's office about the reward, 0:29:11.720 --> 0:29:15.080 but on the stand, Violet said it was the other 0:29:15.160 --> 0:29:20.400 way around that they contacted her. This might seem like 0:29:20.440 --> 0:29:25.120 a minor detail, but knowing what triggered the reward payment 0:29:25.360 --> 0:29:28.360 is key in determining whether or not this is a 0:29:28.400 --> 0:29:33.240