Erased: The Murder of Elma Sands

​​In 1987, 18-year-old Michelle Schofield was found dead in a phosphate pit in Florida. Two years later, her husband Leo was convicted and sentenced to life in prison. Fifteen years later, previously unidentified fingerprints matched Jeremy Scott--a violent teenager who lived nearby. Jeremy has since confessed to Michelle’s murder. Yet Leo Schofield remains behind bars. In this groundbreaking podcast, Bone Valley host Gilbert King uncovers startling new evidence that Jeremy is responsible for a string of murders. King is the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, Devil in the Grove, which led to the exonerations of four innocent men. Bone Valley is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1.

Hosted by celebrated criminal justice reform advocate and founding board member of the Innocence Project Jason Flom, Pulitzer prize-winning podcast host and producer Maggie Freleng, and Emmy Award-winning writer, producer, and podcast host Lauren Bright Pacheco, Wrongful Conviction features intimate conversations with men and women who have spent years in prison for crimes they maintain they did not commit. Some have been fully exonerated and reunited with family and friends while others continue to languish, with some even facing execution on death row. Each episode peels back the layers behind the stories of those who have found themselves caught in a legal system gone wrong, with illuminating insights from lawyers and leading experts sharing their in-depth knowledge about each case, from prison visits and courtroom battles to reexamined crime scenes and witness interviews. This gripping series reveals the tragedy of injustice…as well as the triumph that is possible when people step up and demand change.

One July night in 1995, Deputy Sheriff William G. Hardy was shot behind the Crown Sterling Suites hotel in Birmingham, Alabama. At the same time as the murder, at least ten people saw Toforest Johnson four miles away, at a popular nightclub called Tee's Place. But detectives zeroed in on him as a main suspect in Deputy Hardy’s murder anyway, ultimately resulting in Toforest being tried, convicted, and sentenced to death. For over a quarter century, Toforest has been confined to a 5’ by 8’ cell on Alabama’s death row. In 2019, investigative journalist Beth Shelburne began covering the case, going down a disturbing rabbit hole revealing many unsettling facts that cast grave doubts about Toforest’s guilt. The facts she found tear at the very foundation of the American criminal justice system: No eyewitnesses or physical evidence tied Toforest to the murder; the state tried to convict a different man for the same crime; and perhaps most disturbing of all, Toforest’s conviction relied on an ‘earwitness’ – a woman who claimed to have eavesdropped on an incriminating phone call, a woman whom prosecutors paid for her testimony, in secret. That payment was not disclosed to the jury, Toforest, or his lawyers until after he had been on death row for 17 years. From the team behind the award-winning hit podcast Bone Valley, Lava for Good’s Earwitness is an 8-episode docuseries that asks the question, “How did an innocent man end up on death row — and why is the state still trying to execute him over the objection of the prosecutor who put him there?” Shelburne’s unprecedented access to key players—the lead detective, lead prosecutor, witnesses, jurors, and the earwitness herself— illuminate a story filled with disturbing twists, frustrating ambiguities, and shocking admissions. The story of Toforest Johnson and the state's enthusiasm for the death penalty in the face of such troubling evidentiary flaws brings to light the failings of a criminal justice system run amok. Earwitness is available every Tuesday wherever you get your podcasts. To hear episodes 1 week early and ad free, subscribe to Lava for Good+ on Apple Podcasts.

In 1971, President Nixon declared drug abuse ‘public enemy number one’— the first salvo in America’s War on Drugs. Fifty years later, with drug overdoses in the US at a record high, are we any closer to ‘victory’? The War on Drugs has a more profound effect on society than any of us really understands. It is embedded in the fabric of our culture and permeates our daily lives in visible and invisible ways – perhaps the most daunting pandemic we face. Lava for Good’s The War on Drugs podcast, co-hosted by comedian Clayton English and Greg Glod, senior criminal justice fellow at Americans for Prosperity, examines the true cost of five decades of policy, policing, and persecution. Special guests, including diverse subject matter experts, peel back the surface of this complicated period of US history, showing the ways the War on Drugs has fueled over incarceration, exacerbated addiction and hampered economic progress. By shining a spotlight on how our communities have crumbled under the weight of this so-called ‘war,’ we can explore the politicization of public health policy, institutional racism and classism in the legislation and administration of criminal law, and how decriminalization and other alternatives could bring the fruitless ‘war’ to an end.  The War on Drugs will be available every Wednesday beginning January 25 wherever you get your podcasts. The War on Drugs is a production of Lava for Good Podcasts in association with Signal Co. No1