defense. end quote. no experience. no training. no time to investigate. a trifecta of trial disaster. when the court later agreed to give him a private investigator, they only provided funds for someone, well, someone no one would want. johnson s current lawyers describe this p i. as quote a brain-damaged alcoholic racist suicidal homeless man who had already been fired from at leaf one capital case for incompetence, had been operating without a business license for at least five years, and could barely manage his own day to day affairs. end quote. the guy for the job. now that all of this information about this botched case has come to light, numerous people want justice for toforest. and aforementioned former chief justice of the alabama supreme court, he s come out against the case. he asks, quote, why is toforest johnson still on alabama s death row? over time, the state s case has fallen apart and there s now
to find prosecutorial or police misconduct. but when you get to conviction, our system means that that s the time that the courts are least likely to reopen your case. so as soon as you get access to all of this evidence that could potentially for you, the courts make it almost impossible for you to get back in. and when they do, it s piecemeal, it s one issue at a time. and they tend not to sort of, once they ruled on an issue they re not going to, it s very difficult to give and go back and look at a later. but i do think we use it is very important. right now, he is caught in the system. and the alabama courts are sort of limited by case law and omitted by these post conviction rules about how they have to listen to some of these evidence. i don t get excuses the ruling but it is, it sort of explains it. the alabama attorney general and governor don t have those excuses. they could end this tomorrow. they could free this guy and mr. johnson and end this injustice tomorrow. and why t
year old yolanda chambers. according to the washington post, even the prosecutors in this case have admitted that since the 1995 murder, chambers quote, had told more than 300 lies about who was involved and what she knew. that was the person who was the primary witness in the case against deforest johnson s friend, and he is the man who named johnson as the one who pulled the trigger. she came forward as a potential witness only after the governor s office announced a 10,000 dollar award for anyone who gave information leading to an arrest. her mother told police she had information about the murder, but she did not. at that point he was in the position of either providing information, or doing jail time for lying about it. she later reported feeling pressured to give some kind of information. before one of his criminal trials, chambers even admitted that she had lied. she said that she had
claiming they had proof beyond a reasonable doubt that, i don t know, both of them did it? either of them did it? one of them did it? they didn t know. so they let the jurors decide. that happened based on the word of one unreliable witness, yolanda chambers and even the prosecutors admitted in the case that since the 1995 murder, chambers had told more than 300 lies about who was involved, and what she knew. that is the person who is the primary witness in the case against toforest johnson s friend and named johnson as the man who pulled the trigger and she came forward as a potential witness and only after the governor s office announced a $10,000 reward for anyone who gave information leading to an arrest. her mother told police she had information about the murder but she did not. at that point, she was in a position of either providing
explain. it the alabama attorney general and the alabama govern deer have those excuses, they could end this case tomorrow, they could free this guy, mr. johnson and end this injustice tomorrow and they haven t, even before my article posted about this case, why it has been three years, there is no sense of urgency and i think that s what is unforgivable here. they got the same evidence that you know about, thank you very much for reporting on this case and keeping it in the front, forefront for us, criminal justice columnist for the washington post, we appreciate you making time to be with us tonight. thanks. my pleasure. the last story just ahead tonight. stay with us. pleasure. the last story just ahead tonight. stay with us