Beth Shelburne

And personally involved in the reward issue, he wrote the letter asking the governor to pay Violet Ellison.

The defense team for Mr. Johnson didn't have any records about the reward until 2019.

The attorney general's office produced the records and said they had been misfiled.

Does that sound strange to you, or do you have any idea how that could have happened?

It happens?

Actually, it did happen at least one other time on Barbara's watch.

In 2004, a man named Montez Spradley was sentenced to death for murder based on the testimony of one witness, just like to Forrest Johnson.

Eventually, Spradley's lawyers discovered the star witness was paid $10,000 for her testimony.

But police and prosecutors never disclosed the reward payment because the reward documents were kept in the same separate file as Violet Ellison's reward payment.

The judge in that case also didn't disclose information about the reward.

The judge was Gloria Bayhackle, the sister of Alfred Bayhackle, the judge into Forrest's trial.

Hello?

Hey, my name is Beth Shelburne.

I was wondering if Mr. Alfred Bayhackle is here?

My producer Mara and I went to Judge Alfred Bayhackle's house, hoping to talk to him about these off-the-record payment authorizations.

But he told us that he wasn't interested in commenting on any specific cases or his time as a judge.

Montez Bradley was able to prove his innocence and was released from prison in 2015.

To Forrest and his attorneys, hope for the same outcome.

I first heard about DeForest Johnson's case in 2019 when the Brady hearing was scheduled.

I was assigned to cover the hearing for WBRC, the news station where I used to work.