Death Row, 28-year-old mystery, nurses: Down in Alabama

No reprieve

The United State Supreme court has passed on reviewing an appeal from Death Row inmate Toforest Johnson, reports AL.com’s Mike Cason.

The high court did not issue an opinion.

Numerous officials have weighed in on the side of giving Johnson a retrial. And not just the usual activists. Among those concerned that Johnson’s conviction may have been flawed include Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr, former Alabama Chief Justice Drayton Nabers, former state AG Bill Baxley and even Johnson’s original prosecutor in the case.

Johnson’s lawyers are arguing that a key witness in the trial had been paid $5,000 in reward money and that the prosecutors had kept that information hidden from the defense for nearly two decades. The state argues that no proof has been shown that the witness knew anything about a reward during the trial and that the prosecutors didn’t apply for a reward for the witness for three years after the trial.

Johnson was found guilty of murdering Jefferson County Sheriff’s Deputy William Hardy. The witness in question said she picked up a phone while her daughter was on a call to the jail and that a man identifying himself as “Toforest” admitted to the crime.

Remains found

A discovery in Dixie County, Florida, has added a puzzle piece to a 28-year-old mystery out of Houston County, Alabama, reports AL.com’s Warren Kulo.

In May 1995, 72-year-old James Aaron Toole reportedly told his granddaughter he was leaving Pansey, Alabama, to check on a sick relative in Plant City, Florida.

If you know Pansey, you know it’s along Highway 84 between Dothan and Donalsonville, Georgia.

Toole wasn’t seen again.

Last week, however, crews that were cleaning up after Hurricane Idalia found an old Chevy Cavalier, the car Toole would’ve been driving, submerged in the Steinhatchee River in Dixie County. That’s a Gulf Coast county south of the Big Bend area and north of Tampa.

Human remains were found in the car along with a credit card and Sam’s Club card that had Toole’s name on them.

Toole’s family issued a statement. “This discovery has answered some of the questions we have had over the years, but it has also created new questions. We hope to understand more about what happened to Papa as more information is uncovered.”

Wanted: nurses

I have some good news for current nursing students. Bad news for everyone else, though.

The Alabama Daily News is reporting that a survey has shown that 38,727 experienced nurses in Alabama plan to be out of that line of work in the next five years. The Alabama Board of Nursing conducted the survey. It’s projecting nursing openings to rise to possibly as high as 14,000 by 2027.

Nurses in Alabama make the second-lowest median salary in the U.S. at $56,570.

More Alabama news

Born on this day

• In, 1790 Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation John Ross of the original Turkeytown, much of which is now at the bottom of Weiss Lake.
• In 1854, former Surgeon General of the U.S. Army William C. Gorgas of Toulminville.
• In 1944, former Alabama Gov. Bob Riley of Ashland.
• In 1964, radio host Rick Burgess of Oxford.

Quiz results

In the proposed Congressional maps ordered by a federal court, Alabama Districts 1 and 2 are significantly reconfigured. Among the counties District 2 now extends into include:

• Mobile (correct) 43%
• Baldwin 29%
• Marengo 16%
• Lee 13%

Church International, an organization led by a husband-and-wife team, has bought up millions of dollars of property in what Alabama town?

• Warrior (correct) 86%
• Wetumpka 11%
• Winfield 8%
• Wedowee 7%

Brookwood Village, the once-thriving shopping center where Homewood borders Mountain Brook, is down to this single business.

• Five Guys Burgers and Fries (correct) 69%
• Hickory Tavern 16%
• Brio 9%
• Milo’s Hamburgers 6%

A new, yet-unnamed, large-scale outdoor music festival is expected to take place in 2024 in what Alabama city?

• Huntsville (correct) 62%
• Muscle Shoals 30%
• Dothan 5%
• Prattville 3%

Which of these has NOT been cited as a reason that a high school football game (or homecoming events related to a football game) has been delayed, suspended, canceled or forfeited?

• An approaching hurricane (correct) 71%
• A band director’s spat with police 21%
• A student-involved shooting earlier in the week 5%
• Fights at the stadium 3%

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