Brittany Holberg, inmate on Texas death row for 27 years, has her conviction tossed by federal appeals court
Brittany Holberg, inmate on Texas death row for 27 years, has her conviction tossed by federal appeals court
A federal appeals court tossed Brittany Holberg's death sentence after it found that prosecutors failed to reveal that their primary trial witness was a paid informant.
A federal appeals court has tossed an Amarillo woman's death sentence after it found that local prosecutors had failed to reveal that their primary trial witness was a paid informant.
With a 2-1 decision, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals last week sent Brittany Marlowe Holberg's 1998 murder conviction back down to the trial court to decide how to proceed.
Holberg has been on death row for 27 years. In securing her conviction in 1998, Randall County prosecutors heavily relied on testimony from a jail inmate who was working as a confidential informant for the City of Amarillo police. That informant recanted her testimony in 2011, but neither a Texas Court of Criminal Appeals or a federal district court found that prosecutors had violated Holberg's constitutional right to a fair trial.
The prosecutors will face no repercussions for destroying most of this woman's life. I hope she sues the state and gets a fat check (at the expense of the taxpayers), but those scumbags should be the ones who have to pay.
Gimmy 5 bucks I'll tell you everything Luigi did! I saw it all on reddit.
Nevermind I'm banned from reddit. But can I please just make stuff up? $5 bucks!
In a lone dissent, circuit judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Donald Trump appointee
shock
Looked up this story in the local paper for a bit more context
Responding officers found Towery in his home dead from multiple stab wounds. Part of a lamp was stuck in his throat.
Unsure how this happens in a self defense situation. Imo if you were threatened and under duress you're gonna do what you have to do, but he was 80 years old
Fearing for her life and fueled by crack cocaine, she overcame Towery and stabbed him repeatedly -- 58 times according to an autopsy report. The evidence showed Holberg also beat Towery with a claw hammer multiple times. “I lost it," Holberg told jurors.
The reasoning behind the Trump-appointed judge's dissent:
"No jury in its right mind would believe that a 23-year-old cocaine-addled prostitute 'defended' herself against a frail old man by (1) stabbing him 58 times, (2) bludgeoning him with various objects including a steam iron, and (3) ramming a lamp base down his throat while he was still alive," Duncan wrote.
In the surface that's pretty reasonable, but the issue is the planted informant being encouraged to further incriminate the defendant:
However, the majority of the judges believed prosecutors heavily relied on Kirkpatrick's testimony -- particularly her description of how Holberg enjoyed killing Towery -- to secure the conviction and during the punishment phase of the trial when they asked for the death sentence.
That's the thing. It does not and should not matter if she did the deed. Using corrupt means to convict her invalidates the entire process. And that's because if they used corrupt means on her then they can use them on you. Prosecutors and police doing that are trying to usurp the role of the court.
That said SCOTUS will rule that she should be immediately executed in the most inhumane way possible.
If the evidence was so good, why did the prosecution fabricate a witness? ... Your explanation glosses over this key fact.
And also, people can protect themselves and later make crazy decisions. That is definitely possible. Likely, even, if they are on hard drugs. So the shocking evidence, well, it isn't so easy to interpret. Which is why a jury has to deal with it, not that Trump judge, and not you and me.
This is why the death penalty or even prison sentences longer than a decade should be eliminated...
I agree that there shouldn’t be a death penalty. I also think that any life sentence should always have the opportunity for parole.
But some people need to be removed from society for the sake of the community. Releasing serial offenders just guarantees more victims.
I also think that any life sentence should always have the opportunity for parole.
Oh god, no. I've seen too many true crime shows to know that some people would go back to killing as soon as they get out.
You want to put school shooters out on the streets again after 10 years? Hard pass.
I don't agree that they should be eliminated. They're there for a reason.
The problem is the unreasonable system we have in place. There had been stories of evidence provided to the judge that simply got ignored that would've proven innocence and the prisoner got killed still. That isn't the flaw with the penalty, it's a flaw with the poor decision making of the judges and everyone involved in the system.
I don't understand what about that people don't get when they advocate against death penalties. Advocate for a better and thorough justice system.
That isn't the flaw with the penalty, it's a flaw with the poor decision making of the judges and everyone involved in the system.
That is the main flaw, all of this relies on people who cannot make correct decisions every time. That's why the death penalty can never be implemented without killing innocent people. You cannot remove human bias from the justice system, it has to be managed.
There should be no death penalty without a perfect justice system that always gets convictions right. Because that is impossible, the death penalty shouldn't exist. Besides imo the justice system should be about rehabilitation, and the death penalty is the opposite to that approach.
I met a black man who was on death row for 14 years for the rape and murder of a white girl. The judge, prosecutor, and public defender all ignored evidence of her body being covered in strawberry blonde pubic hair which this man being black does not have. Thus he spent 14 years and was almost executed twice because everyone involved conspired to have him be convicted. Everyone involved got off scot free and no one faced any punishment for deciding to murder this guy because no one wanted to follow up on the evidence the police gathered.
I don’t know why anyone who considers themselves to be rational would support the death penalty when you know irrational and stupid people exist.
Well, but what if they plea guilty to raping and murdering a hundred kids?
10 year max?
Right, because the system occasionally gets things wrong and displays corruption, we should never ever sentence serial rapists and murders to anything more than 10 years in prison.
Fucking reactionary morons.
reactionary
of, pertaining to, marked by, or favoring reaction, especially extreme conservatism or rightism in politics; opposing political or social change.
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/reactionary
You seem to think that word means the opposite of what it means.
Simple clerical error what's 14 more years on death row?
So Texas is going to execute her anyway, right? Or was that just Missouri?
Not really enough into to judge. Frail old man? What was their relationship? Eg. If he abused her as a child I'd say she's been in there long enough.
The sick lunatic, Holberg, is the perfect congressional candidate for the Government of Putin.
I drive through or spend the night in Amarillo on occasion. Welp, when the gates of hell finally open, I have my idea where it'll happen.