Earwitness, Chapter 8 | Bondage to the Law In an unusual turn, District Attorney Danny Carr and original prosecutor Jeff Wallace push against Toforest Johnson’s conviction, even as he remains on death row. Beth Shelburne traces a system reluctant to admit its failures, while Toforest’s children reveal the human toll of a life caught between injustice and hope. To learn more and get involved, visit: www.toforestjohnson.com Toforest on Instagram Earwitness is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Messy
2026-2-04 | 38 mins.
Earwitness, Chapter 7 | Messy Years after the conviction, the original prosecutor, Jeff Wallace, begins questioning Violet Ellison’s story, while Beth Shelburne uncovers a troubling pattern. Ellison’s moves through the legal system blur the lines between cunning and deceit, revealing a figure far from the innocence prosecutors once claimed. To learn more and get involved, visit: www.toforestjohnson.com Toforest on Instagram Earwitness is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Misfiled
2026-2-04 | 46 mins.
Earwitness, Chapter 6 | Misfiled Beth Shelburne uncovers the murky story behind Violet Ellison, the ‘earwitness’ whose $5,000 payoff shaped Toforest Johnson’s fate. Decades of denial give way to uneasy facts, revealing a conviction propped up by money, influence, and half-truths. To learn more and get involved, visit: www.toforestjohnson.com Toforest on Instagram Earwitness is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Anybody Will Do
2026-2-04 | 57 mins.
Earwitness, Chapter 5 | Anybody Will Do Beth Shelburne digs into how Toforest Johnson was convicted without a shred of physical evidence, as prosecutors leap between ever-shifting theories of Deputy Hardy’s murder. Confronting the prosecutor who once sought a death sentence, she uncovers a case where the law bends into something dangerously personal. To learn more and get involved, visit: www.toforestjohnson.com Toforest on Instagram Earwitness is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Witness or Defendant
2026-2-04 | 47 mins.
Earwitness, Chapter 4 | Witness or Defendant Digging into the Hardy murder investigation, Beth Shelburne follows a trail narrowed by tunnel vision and vanishing alternatives. As detectives chase certainty over truth, witnesses falter, leads evaporate, and a case emerges driven more by obsession than evidence. To learn more and get involved, visit: www.toforestjohnson.com Toforest on Instagram Earwitness is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
In Season 1 of Bone Valley, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Gilbert King tells a story of a man, Leo Schofield, fighting to prove his innocence in the case of his wife Michelle’s murder.
In Season 2, “JEREMY” Gilbert King brings us a story about her actual killer, Jeremy Scott, fighting to prove his guilt. The State of Florida does not believe either man.
Bone Valley Season 3 | GRAVES COUNTY is a new story about a new case. Maggie Freleng, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and one of the hosts of Lava For Good’s Wrongful Conviction, takes us to a small town in Graves County, Kentucky, where a terrible discovery on the front lawn of a middle school invites a string of amateur and professional investigators to try to solve a murder.
Bone Valley Season 4 | EARWITNESS chronicles the case of Toforest Jonhson. In 1995, Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was murdered behind a hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. Toforest Johnson was four miles away at the time and no physical evidence linked him to the crime. But he has been on Death Row for 25 years.
From the team behind Bone Valley, Lava for Good’s 8-episode docuseries Earwitness follows journalist Beth Shelburne’s dogged investigation into a story filled with disturbing twists and shocking admissions, leading her to ask – and answer - this vexing question: “How did an innocent man end up on Alabama’s death row - and why is he still there, when even the prosecutor who put him there says he should get a new trial?”
Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good™ Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.