Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey, a Republican, commuted the death sentence of a death row inmate Tuesday after Jefferson County’s current district attorney, along with several former judges and prosecutors, questioned the strength of his conviction.

Ivey reduced Toforest Johnson’s punishment to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Johnson, who has consistently maintained that he is innocent, was convicted in the 1995 killing of Jefferson County Deputy Sheriff William Hardy. He is incarcerated at Holman Correctional Facility.

“When presented with Mr. Johnson’s case, I had concerns there was not enough direct evidence to carry out the most serious punishment, death,” Ivey said in a statement. “My decision is not a determination of innocence, but a recognition that the circumstances of this case justify commuting his death sentence to life imprisonment, without possibility of parole.”

Since taking office in 2017, Ivey has commuted the death sentences of three Alabama inmates and presided over 27 executions. Her tenure as governor will end in January because she is barred by term limits from seeking re-election.

The governor granted clemency despite a plea from Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall, who urged her last week to reject Johnson’s request and “respect the jury’s decision” as well as rulings from the courts that reviewed the case.

Hardy was shot twice in the head on July 19, 1995, while working an off-duty security job outside a Birmingham hotel. Johnson has said he was across the city when the shooting occurred.

Ty Alper, one of Johnson’s attorneys, said he and his client appreciate Ivey’s “diligently reviewing Toforest’s case and taking action to spare an innocent man from execution.” He added, however, that the legal team will continue pursuing efforts to overturn the conviction.

“Toforest Johnson is innocent. Now it is up to the courts to overturn his conviction and grant him a new trial. We will keep fighting until he is home with his family,” Alper said in a statement.

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Johnson’s attorneys have spent years seeking a new trial. The case has drawn national attention and broad support, including from the original prosecutor, prominent attorneys and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian.

A number of former judges and prosecutors have also joined the campaign for a new trial, citing concerns about the conviction. Former Alabama Attorney General Bill Baxley, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justices Sonny Hornsby and Drayton Nabers, along with other former judges and prosecutors, have filed briefs or published editorials supporting Johnson’s request.

Jefferson County District Attorney Danny Carr, elected in 2018, is among those backing Johnson’s bid for a new trial. In a 2024 court filing, Carr wrote that “the evidence in this case has unraveled over 20 years.”

Carr said credible alibi witnesses placed Johnson elsewhere when the shooting occurred. He also cited several reasons to question the prosecution’s central witness, who “claimed she overheard Johnson confess to the murder on a three-way phone call on which she was eavesdropping.”

During Johnson’s 1998 trial, the woman testified that she had been listening in on a phone call when she heard a man she believed to be Johnson admit to the shooting.

In 2001, she received a $5,000 reward for her assistance in the investigation.

Johnson’s attorneys have argued that prosecutors withheld evidence showing she had a financial incentive to provide testimony.

Dwayne Johnson looked almost unrecognizable on Tuesday as he filmed Benny Safdie’s upcoming movie Lizard Music in Brooklyn, New York City.

The 54-year-old Moana actor underwent a dramatic transformation for the role, appearing as an elderly man and walking with a pronounced hunch in striking behind-the-scenes images.

Johnson, who became famous as The Rock during his WWE career, looked far removed from his trademark muscular physique after slimming down to portray the character.

His complete senior-citizen look featured grey hair visible beneath a beige bucket hat. He wore a tan trench coat, blue shirt and tie while filming outdoor scenes alongside child actor Theo Clark Leber.

The pair were seen carrying oversized slices of pizza, while Leber also held an adorable plush lizard.

Scheduled for release next year, Lizard Music follows a young boy who forms a friendship with a “peculiar man with an elderly chicken,” according to the film’s synopsis.

“Their quest for answers reveals hidden worlds and an unlikely but magical friendship.”

The cast also includes Rachel McAdams, Alicia Silverstone, Colman Domingo, Tim Heidecker, Regina Hall and Jeff Goldblum.

The film is adapted from Daniel Pinkwater’s novel of the same name, first published in 1976.

Johnson was also photographed speaking with Safdie on set. Safdie recently portrayed Agamemnon in Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.

This is not the first major physical transformation Johnson has made for a film role.

Last year, he gained more than 30 pounds of muscle to play MMA fighter Mark Kerr in The Smashing Machine, a biographical drama.

“For me, the transformation was 22 prosthetics, over 30 pounds that I had to put on, which is a lot of weight,” he said on Good Morning America.

He later discussed the opposite physical challenge of slimming down to play the Chicken Man character in Lizard Music.

‘I still have a long ways to go,’ he told Variety in September. ‘I’m so excited to get a chance to hopefully transform again like I was able to do in Smashing Machine. [It means] eating less chicken,’ he quipped. 

Reflecting back on his role as Kerr in the Smashing Machine, he said, ‘This transformation was the hardest thing I’ve ever done. There was a physical transformation, prosthetics, vocal transformation — he has a very specific way of talking.’

He added that it’s ‘not just gaining weight. It’s putting on a quality of muscle that has fast-twitch capacity.’

‘He’s a wrestler. It’s not about bodybuilding. I’ve never done so much trap and neck work in my life. Old-school wrestlers with no necks? That’s what I had to do.’

‘And I held that weight for three and a half months. Then, two weeks later, I had to roll into Moana. So it was Mark Kerr and Maui. Big dudes.’ 

Johnson – crowned Favorite Male Buttkicker at the 2013 Kids Choice Awards – has recently expressed a desire to ‘be taken seriously’ after being ‘pigeonholed’ with his roles.

He has appeared in hit big budget movies such as Jumanji, Moana and The Fast and the Furious, but is now aiming for something bigger than the box office.

Speaking at the Venice Film Festival last year, he shared: ‘When you’re in Hollywood — as we all know, it can become about box office.’

‘And you chase the box office, and the box office can be very loud and it can become very resounding and it can push you into a category and into a corner.’

He continued: ‘This is your lane and this is what you do and this is what Hollywood wants you to do.’

‘I understood that, and I did those movies, and it was fun. And some of them did really well. It’s not about proving something to Hollywood as much as it is proving something to me.’

‘A few years ago I started to ask myself, am I living my dream or am I living other peoples dreams.’

‘You come to that recognition and I think you can either fall in line – Well, it’s status quo, things are good, I don’t want to rock the boat. Or go, I want to live my dreams now and do what I wanna do and tap into the stuff that I want to tap into and have a place finally to put all this stuff that I’ve experienced in the past that I’ve shied away from.’

He added of his role as Kerr: ‘I’ve been scared to go deep and intense and raw until now, until I had this opportunity.’

A Florida police officer allegedly took control of a deceased man’s home, used his identity and spent years renovating the property before the scheme unraveled when he sued the man’s heirs for repayment.

Lauderhill Police Officer Brian Louis Sguros was arrested Tuesday on allegations of fraud and falsifying official documents while acting as a public servant. Investigators say the yearslong scheme began after he assumed control of a South Florida house belonging to Dennis Ionis West.

Sguros, 35, was one of two officers sent to West’s home for a welfare check on July 11, 2022. A neighbor had called 911 after not seeing the 71-year-old man for more than a week, WPLG reported.

Officers found West dead just inside the home’s front entrance. Authorities determined that he had died of natural causes related to cardiovascular disease, according to the outlet.

During the post-mortem process, Sguros allegedly told officials that he had been friends with West. He also offered to arrange funeral services if no relatives could be located.

“Sguros represented himself to the Broward County Medical Examiner’s Office as West’s friend, although there is no indication he knew West, and stated that West had no living family, which was untrue,” the Broward Sheriff’s Office alleged, according to the South Florida SunSentinel.

Several weeks later, on Aug. 1, Sguros took possession of West’s home without legal authorization. He later acknowledged doing so in a sworn court filing.

According to WPLG, Sguros said he spent more than $214,000 of his own money repairing the deteriorating property. He claimed the work was intended to protect the house from criminal activity and squatters.

The renovations included removing decayed boards and cleaning the residence. The improvements reportedly increased the property’s value to roughly $500,000.

But investigators accuse Sguros of using West’s identity to obtain permits for an $8,000 project involving the replacement of windows and doors.

The permit applications identified West as the living owner and included what appeared to be his driver’s license and signature.

A construction company hired by Sguros said the documents led employees to believe West was still alive, investigators told the outlet.

The allegedly falsified records also indicated that West had appeared before a notary and signed the documents in August 2024.

However, the notary named in the paperwork denied any involvement. She told investigators that the signature was not hers and that the notary stamp differed in size from the one she uses, according to the report.

Sguros is also accused of using a department-issued computer to search West’s name multiple times and access the deceased man’s Department of Motor Vehicles and Social Security records.

The alleged conduct came to light after Equinox Realty Holding contacted West’s rightful heirs, who were seeking to assume control of the property.

Sguros agreed to turn over the keys but filed a civil lawsuit in February 2026 seeking compensation for the extensive renovations he said he had financed.

The realty company’s attorney then contacted the Lauderhill Police Department after discovering that Sguros had allegedly used his police powers to obtain information about West.

Sguros, who joined the department in March 2021, was suspended with pay in July.

Following his Tuesday arrest, he was placed on unpaid leave.

He faces charges for falsifying official documents as a public servant, fraud – using the identification of a deceased person valued at $5,000, fraud – impersonation over $5,000, computer crime to defraud, obtain property and using two-way communications to commit a felony.

He is being held at the Broward County Jail according to inmate records.

“We hold police officers in the highest regard because they take an oath to protect the public,” Broward County Property Appraiser Marty Kiar told WPLG.

“This case is so troubling because this officer has been charged with using his position to defraud the public. I want to thank our BCPA Crimes Against Property Team and the Broward Sheriff’s Office for their detailed and thorough investigation.”