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Bone Valley

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Introducing - Bone Valley Season 4 | Earwitness

Jan 28, 20264 min
Summary

This episode introduces Earwitness, a compelling new investigative series presented as the fourth season of Bone Valley. Hosted by Alabama-based journalist Beth Shelburne, the eight-part docuseries examines the troubling case of Toforest Johnson, who has spent over 25 years on death row for the 1995 murder of a deputy sheriff. Despite having multiple alibi witnesses who placed him at a nightclub miles away during the crime, Johnson was convicted without any physical evidence or eyewitness testimony. Shelburne reveals the shocking reality behind the state’s case, which relied on a secretively paid witness and hidden evidence. Through interviews with jurors, detectives, and prosecutors, the series exposes a systemic refusal to acknowledge a potential wrongful conviction. Listeners can expect an intense deep dive into a broken justice system and the ongoing battle to prove an innocent man's claim to freedom.

Updated May 9, 2026

About This Episode

Today we're introducing you to Earwitness. Earwitness is one of Lava for Good’s most important investigative series and will be released right here in the Bone Valley feed. You’ll see it shown here as Bone Valley Season 4 but it is a completely different show told by a different host - noted Alabama-based journalist and podcaster Beth Shelburne. We hope you enjoy.

One hot July night in 1995, Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was shot dead behind a Birmingham, AL hotel. At the same time, four miles away at least ten people saw Toforest Johnson at a packed nightclub called Tee’s Place. It didn’t matter. The cops zeroed in on Toforest as the culprit anyway.

What followed was a familiar American ritual: arrest, trial, conviction, death sentence. No eyewitnesses. No physical evidence. Just unjustifiable confidence. For more than 25 years, Toforest has lived in a five-by-eight cell on Alabama’s death row.

In 2019, journalist Beth Shelburne reopened the case and found something far worse than incompetence. The state once tried to pin the murder on another man. Its case hinged on an “earwitness,” a woman secretly paid by prosecutors to testify about an overheard phone call. The jury never knew. Neither did the defense. They found out 17 years later.

Earwitness, an eight-part docuseries from the team behind Bone Valley, pulls back the curtain on a justice system that refuses to admit it got it wrong. With rare access to detectives, prosecutors, jurors, and witnesses, Shelburne asks the only question that matters: how did an innocent man end up on death row, and why is the state still trying to kill him?

On February 4, we'll be releasing all eight episodes right here in the Bone Valley feed as Bone Valley Season 4 | Earwitness. For those who want to hear Earwitness early and ad-free, subscribe to Lava for Good+ on Apple Podcasts.

Earwitness is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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