<p>Toforest Johnson’s death penalty reduced to life in prison without parole over doubts about his conviction</p><p>Toforest Johnson, an Alabama death row inmate, will no longer face execution after the state’s Republican governor commuted his sentence amid increasing doubts about his conviction.</p><p>Kay Ivey, the Alabama governor, commuted Johnson’s sentence to life in prison without parole in the 1995 murder of William Hardy, a Jefferson county deputy sheriff. Johnson has long maintained he is innocent, and several former public officials, as well the local district attorney, have argued he should receive a new trial.</p> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/oct/20/alabama-governor-commutes-death-row-sentence">Continue reading...</a>