Beth Shelburne

Producers are Mara McNamara, Hannah Beal, and Jackie Pauley.

Kara Kornhaber is our senior producer.

Britt Spangler is our sound designer.

Additional story editing from Marie Sutton.

Fact check help from Catherine Newhand.

And special thanks to Taforest Johnson's legal defense team.

You can follow the show on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and Twitter at Lava for Good.

To see behind the scenes content from our investigation, visit lavaforgood.com slash earwitness.

last time on Ear Witness.

Why did the jury believe this woman who eavesdropped on the call over you who actually had the call?

On the call.

I don't understand.

Do you remember the first time you met him?

Ty Alper was just starting out his legal career at the Southern Center for Human Rights when he met Taforest Johnson.

Taforest was one of the first people on death row that Ty'd been assigned to represent.

In January of 2003, Ty gets into one of the old Volvos that the Southern Center had in their parking lot in Atlanta and drives four hours south to Holman Prison in Atmore, Alabama.

Ty is 29 years old, and here's what he knows.

Taforest Johnson is just eight months older than he is, and he's been on death row for over four years for a crime he says he did not commit.

When Ty finally gets inside the prison, he's taken to a room called the visiting yard.

But it isn't a yard at all.