Politics and Current
Former judge makes shocking confession after helping send black man to death row based on state-paid witness testimony

A girl who served on the jury that sentenced an Alabama man to death 25 years ago is now calling for a brand new trial due to evidence of potential wrongdoing, saying her role within the 1998 murder conviction “doesn’t allow me to sleep at night.”
Monique Hicks of Prattsville, Alabama, served on the jury that found Toforest Johnson guilty of the murder of Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy William G. “Bill” Hardy, who was shot to death in a Birmingham hotel parking zone in the summertime of 1995 while working off-duty as a security guard. .
Johnson, who’s black, was put on trial three years later, found guilty and sentenced to death based on the questionable testimony of a witness who was paid hundreds of dollars to testify on behalf of the prosecution.

Due to the newly discovered evidence, Hicks claims to regret his role in convicting Johnson, proclaiming his innocence and even asking for forgiveness from his family.
“I asked the Lord to forgive me for causing so much suffering.” She wrote in a guest opinion column published on April 22 on AI.com. “I pray that Mr. Johnson and his family will forgive me as well. In the meantime, I will continue to use my voice to ask for justice.”
In the column, Hicks expresses deep regret, asking: “What responsibility do I even have? “My role in wrongfully convicting an innocent man keeps me up at night.”
The effort to free Johnson has received significant support from celebrity activist Kim Kardashian, in addition to several distinguished legal figures, including the National Innocence Project, which recently filed two amicus briefs in support of a brand new trial for Johnson – one before the U.S. Supreme Court, and the opposite within the Jefferson County Circuit Court in Alabama.
As of May 2024, no execution date has been set for Johnson, who has maintained his innocence since becoming a suspect within the officer’s murder nearly three many years ago when he was 25 and in his prime.
At the time of the murder on July 19, 1995, five suspects as well as to Johnson were ultimately arrested in reference to the fatal shooting, but only Johnson was convicted despite an absence of physical evidence or eyewitnesses to place him on the scene of the crime.
Last yr, Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr conducted a nine-month review of the evidence and concluded that the “interests of justice” required a brand new trial for Johnson, now 50.
“Leadership is not about being right, it is about making things right,” he said at a faith rally in support of Johnson in December 2023.
But state Attorney General Steve Marshall dismissed that investigation, calling it Carr’s “subjective opinion.”
But an appeal filed by Johnson’s lawyers in Jefferson County Circuit Court proves the investigation cannot simply be ignored.
Despite the brand new evidence, Marshall continues to ask the court to prevent the convict from getting a brand new trial and insists that Johnson be sentenced to death sooner moderately than later.
The fundamental obstacle within the state’s case is witness Violet Ellison, who testified within the 1998 trial that she overheard Johnson confess to the officer’s murder during a telephone conversation she overheard as Johnson spoke from prison.
Ellison’s testimony was a key a part of the case that ultimately resulted in Johnson’s conviction, but in 2015 – 17 years after the trial – the state revealed that it had secretly paid Ellison $5,000 for her testimony.
Additionally, Ellison has a questionable record as a witness, as her testimony as a state witness in five other criminal cases resulted in acquittals and dismissals.
Her involvement within the Johnson case led three jurors – including Hicks – to request a brand new trial, stating that they might not have convicted him in the event that they had known concerning the payment to Ellison and her credibility issues.
Other recent evidence also emerged pointing to Johnson’s innocence.
A brand new podcast, “Earwitness,” has brought renewed attention to the case and revealed recent information that would potentially free Johnson after many years behind bars.
In 2023, the podcast found Ellison’s grandchildren, who revealed they didn’t trust her, describing her as willing to do “anything for a dollar.”
According to nearly a dozen witnesses, Johnson and his disabled friend Ardragus Ford were hanging out together at Tee’s Place, a nightclub in downtown Birmingham, on the time Deputy Hardy was killed 4 miles away.
However, a couple of days after the murder, a troubled 15-year-old girl named Yolanda Chambers, who was later joined by the girl who was picked up by Johnson and Ford after the boys left the nightclub, turned each men over to authorities after the sheriff’s decision. the department offers an award.
Although Chambers modified her story multiple times, she initially told investigators that the boys admitted to the ladies that Johnson had “coped out” earlier that evening. Johnson and Ford became everlasting suspects after the primary of Chambers’ many interviews with investigators.
During the trial, through which Chambers emerged as an inconsistent witness, police all but admitted that they were unsure who actually killed Deputy Hardy because they lacked any physical evidence or eyewitness testimony that directly implicated Johnson.
During the trial, prosecutors also presented five conflicting theories concerning the fatal shooting in an attempt to explain the circumstances of Hardy’s death, but stopped in need of drawing any conclusions, suggesting there was no smoking gun.
The lead detective on the case initially testified that Ardragus Ford and one other man, Omar Berry, were chargeable for Hardy’s killing. However, prosecutors modified their theory multiple times over a three-year period, leading to Johnson being the just one found guilty and sentenced to death.

Hicks said she modified her mind about Johnson’s guilt greater than 20 years after she helped send him to death row for the crime.
“After the trial, I returned home and returned to everyday life,” she explained. “I haven’t heard anything else from Toforest Johnson for over two decades. But then I started seeing his case on the news.”
Around this time, in 2023, public officials in Alabama began calling for a retrial of Johnson, which was met with broad support from the likes of Kardashian, who in January shared several infographics about Johnson’s criminal case on Instagram along with her 364 million followers . .
In one post, Kardashian wrote that Johnson was “26. He spent Christmas in prison for against the law he didn’t commit” and posted a link to a petition for help for the man.
Support for Johnson also got here from numerous unlikely places, namely from former state Attorney General Bill Baxley and Birmingham District Attorney Jeff Wallace, who in 1998 prosecuted Johnson for Hardy’s murder.
Earlier in 2014, Wallace testified under oath that he “does not believe the state’s case is very strong because it depends on the testimony of Violet Ellison.”
Baxley, who fought to restore the death penalty as Alabama’s attorney general within the Nineteen Seventies, also said he firmly believed Johnson was innocent, describing him as “trapped” within the legal system.
“Johnson’s murder trial was so riddled with errors and the evidence presented against him so scant that no Alabamian should tolerate his imprisonment, let alone his execution,” he added. Baxley wrote for the Washington Post.
The call to throw out the ruling also drew support from two former Alabama governors and a former Republican state judge.
AND website named in Johnson’s honor also found, which highlighted the variety of advocates and lawmakers who were behind the hassle to free him.
As the momentum built for Johnson, Hicks said she began to grapple with the impact of the jury’s decision on his fate, which led to deep personal reflection and she or he found she could now not ignore what many others were now claiming about Johnson’s innocence. .
Based on her Christian faith, Hicks said she felt moved to express her recent perspective on the case in a column she wrote, calling for a brand new trial for Johnson while emphasizing the necessity for a good and thorough examination of all of the evidence.
“Twenty-five years ago I sat on the jury in a Birmingham courtroom and voted for a man’s death. Prosecutor Jeff Wallace asked me and the opposite jurors to convict defendant Toforest Johnson of murder. He then asked us to sentence Mr. Johnson to death. We did each.
After Wallace, of all people, called for a brand new trial, Hicks said she struggled to come to terms along with her own decision to convict Johnson, which forced her to speak out.
“I remember how young Mr. Johnson looked. And I remember perfectly well that when the verdict was read, I heard loud lamentations in the audience. Now that I am a mother myself, I can only imagine the immense sadness that Mr. Johnson’s mother must have felt. At the time, I took comfort in the belief that my vote to convict Mr. Johnson and sentence him to death was the right one. Now my tears are flowing too.”
Politics and Current
Donald Trump’s attempt to embarrass Keisha Lance Bottoms with online cancellation, when he announces that she has already given up the fiery clamp

Even after the day he returned to the oval office for the second term, Donald Trump once more showed that nothing would break through the rush of the fact that he has no job.
Early on Tuesday morning, shortly after midnight, Trump began to Social truth With his latest staff news, after all entitled “You are released”, his abused signature with the reality show “The Apprentice”.
“Our first day in the White House is not over yet!” Trump wrote. “My presidential staff office actively identifies and removes over a thousand presidential denominators from the previous administration, who do not agree with our vision of making America again.”

In other words, released – including the joint chiefs of staff Marek Milley, serving the National Infrastructure Advisory Council, chef Jose Andres, from the President’s Council for Sport, Fitness and Nutrition and former mayor of Atlanta Keish Lance Bottom, from the President’s Export Council – were critical without delay and the current president.
But it seems that Andres and Bottoms defeated a brand new boss.
Writing on X, Andres said that he gave up last week. “My two -year term is over”, the famous chef wrote.
A day late and a brief dollar … My resignation from the President’s Export Council was made on January 4, with the effect yesterday, “wrote Bottoms in a statement issued on Tuesday.” You cannot decelerate someone who has already given up. From all the things that are happening in the world, I’m undecided why I’m in the mind of Donald Trump at 1:30 after his inauguration, but I count as a badge of honor. “
Bottoms will not be a surprise. She proved that she was a talented surrogate in the Joe Biden 2020 campaign, based on her experiences cooperating with Trump as the mayor of Atlanta. A couple of weeks after the election, Anderson Cooper from CNN said: “He will eat his own children, I am sure that if he considered it careful.”
In his statement on Tuesday, Bottoms scolded the president for waste of time to staff, when his attention is required elsewhere.
“I hope that his attention to detail will be much more lit when it comes to world matters,” she said. “There are real problems that require attention all over the world. No matter how you voted, I think we can all agree, that aiming with me with a man who feeds resettled people in Los Angeles and arranged military general in the early morning hours through social media, is not the best use of time for the President of the United States.”
Was recently carried out by The Atlanta Journal-ConstitutionBottoms said that the critical point in her relationship with the Trump administration appeared during a pandemic, citing the lack of predictability in dealing with the crisis.
“I give an example, among the pandemic, the comments that the president presented whether it was injected with bleach or really encouraged people to trust science in Covid,” she said.
She criticized his use of federal agents to suppress demonstration over excessive strength by law enforcement agencies, signing a protest letter with dozens of other leaders of enormous cities.
Botty was the mayor of Atlanta in 2018–2021 before joining the Biden administration in 2022 as a senior advisor and director of the public commitment office. She returned to DC in 2023 to lead the import advice.
(Tagstranslate) Donald Trump (T) Keisha Lance Bottoms
Politics and Current
Kamala Harris made a historic president: the new book gives her a breakthrough journey through photos – essence

Getty images
The 107-day Kamala Harris campaign for the president of the United States was greater than a political run-it was a seismic moment in America’s history. Although the race didn’t end with victory, Harris broke the barriers with relentless determination, historical milestones and a message of joy that many inspired.
In the new book, IN The authors of Deborah Willis and Kevin Merida capture the transformation journey of Vice President Harris with convincing photography and great history. This book that hit stores on December 17 offers an intimate and refined portrait of Harris’s life, a formidable profession and a historical campaign, combining their public triumphs with personal moments that shaped its groundbreaking entrance.

This is a story that each Merida, journalist, in addition to the creator, in addition to Willis, photographer and photo historian, needed to be told, no matter the campaign’s consequence. “You know, sometimes we can simply take a story for granted. This person was the first and that, but literally broke the barriers and broke the ceilings not made of glass, but made of bricks at every level,” says Merida. “She is the first black American woman who is a vice president and the first of the main political party who received the president’s nomination and who had to be fully mastered.”
Thanks to over 150 photos, the iconic quotes and the most vital events from the vertical life and profession of Vice President Willis and Merida provide a photographic biography that consolidates Harris’s history as a testimony to progress and strength of possibilities.
The book offers an intimate have a look at its historical 107-day campaign to the President of the United States, launched after President Biden announced that he wouldn’t search for re-election. “It was different than everything we saw,” says Merida.
“107 days to conduct a campaign when we are used to presidential campaigns that were two years old in creation … The Democratic Party merged around this one candidate after the president decided not to run, so we were dealing with history only in the campaign and how it happened … so chronicly that we wanted to capture him in real time,” he adds.
“When she announced her campaign, I was surprised that many people in news ignored the history of her history,” says Willis, who tried to inform the layered story of Harris’s personal and skilled journey. “I wanted to show her identity – she had many – as a sister, daughter, mother. I wanted to show influential experiences that shaped her through photos,” adds Willis.

One of the most striking elements of the book is concentration on joy – a topic often omitted in political narratives, but a deliberate purpose of this book. Willis and Merida claim that they intended to capture the joy and emotional resonance of the campaign-often inverted aspect of political travels.
This approach reflects their previous cooperation, which described the groundbreaking campaign of former President Barack Obama from 2008, with a similar attention to humanity behind the story.
“We were looking for ways to find the joy of the campaign, this emotional experience, which is often ignored during the campaign,” divides Willis from Essence. “When we noticed the door of the door to the door, the touch of the heart, the selfie that created the language that he directed me as a photographer to look at the eyes of the people he is looking at … those exchanges that created a desire to be part of the world of Harris,” he adds.

Book visualizations are a powerful tool for telling stories, with paintings akin to Harris engaging with young fans, sharing cordial moments together with his team and covering community members on the campaign trail. These photos provide readers with a sense of joy and combination that defined her sprint to the White House.
Both authors perceive their work as a tribute to Harris’s immunity and the wider impact of her journey. “Books are souvenirs … There is nothing stronger than visual images, because you can come back and you can consider and study them,” notes Merida.
Willis emphasized the importance of sharing the amazing journey of Harris. “We wanted to show the world not only what she achieved, but as she achieved it,” he says.
Thanks to the cooperation of Willis and Merida, they created a work that not only celebrates the achievements of Kamali Harris, but additionally inspires readers to see in history. As Merida put it: “Nobody arrives. Success is based on the influence, perseverance and belief that tomorrow can be better than today. The story of Kamali is proof of this.”
Politics and Current
Author Trump Stephen Miller says that America is “blessed” Kamala Harris is not the president, Rails against Dei

The White House advisor, Stephen Miller, hit Kamala Harris after the former vp slammed the first 100 days of office of President Donald Trump during his last speech in California.
Miller, deputy chief of Trump’s policy staff, reacted on Thursday to Harris’s catchy remarks about the president during the press briefing of the White House, telling journalists that American public opinion should hear from the former presidential candidate, is “apology”.
“I think it was a great reminder for the Americans about how blessing we are, that the leader sitting today in the oval office is President Donald Trump, not President Kamala Harris,” said Miller, the important strategist of Trump’s immigration policy. “It was a helpful reminder what a parody and tragedy would be. It would be the end of America.”
Miller argued that Harris’ administration would proceed to proceed what he described as “radical regulations, choosing American energy … taxing our economy to death, pushing the cancerous ideology to awaken our children, ending his merit, ending scientific innovations (I) ending public security.” He added: “Citizens who follow the rights under the previous administration were punished while Gang Bangers received a red carpet treatment.”
“The only thing that Americans want to hear from Kamali Harris is an apology for joining Joe Biden,” remember that there was a spell border – in burdening the invasion of our country, “he said about the former vp.
On Wednesday, during a conversation on the twentieth anniversary of Emerge America in San Francisco, Harris warned that Trump was leading the country to economic and constitutional crises. However, she encouraged the Americans to recollect “this country is ours – it does not belong to who is in the White House.”

Former Biden-Harris clerk said as an alternative of specializing in what Harris says in speeches, Miller should “focus on his own home.” She cited Thursday’s overthrow of Trump’s national security advisor, Mike Waltz, adding: “They are already shooting staff in 100 days. It’s a bit stupid.”
During the Thursday press briefing, Stephen Miller also directed against diversity, capital and inclusion, the important feature of Trump’s administration, which implemented the executive orders of prohibiting Dei politicians in the federal government and compelled private institutions, including university campuses, to follow the suitcase.

Miller called the policy of Dei as a part of the Biden-Harris administration “racial discrimination” and certainly one of the “most important crises that President Trump inherited from the office.” Trump’s adviser said that the administration “fully enforces title VI, title VII and the title of the 9th of our Federal Code of Civil Rights.” Suggesting that Dei is essentially discriminating against white men who do not use such policies, he added: “discrimination based on breed and sex is prohibited by law, and this administration vigorously enforces it.”
“These are not the effects that we will feel today. These are the effects that we feel from now on. These are the effects that our children will feel,” she explained. “These withdrawals have significant implications for diversity in the workplace, protection of civil rights, and the general position of America.”
(Tagstranslata) Trump administration
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