A federal appeals court has overturned the death sentence of Brittany Holberg, an Amarillo woman convicted in 1998 for the murder of an older man.
The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that prosecutors had failed to disclose important information about a key witness in Holberg’s trial, which resulted in a violation of her constitutional rights. In a 2-1 decision, the court sent Holberg’s case back to the trial court to determine the next steps, according to WFAA.
Holberg, who has spent 27 years on death row, was convicted of killing 80-year-old A.B. Towery, a former client from her time spent as a sex worker. Prosecutors relied heavily on testimony from Vickie Marie Kirkpatrick, a jailhouse informant who claimed Holberg had confessed to the murder. However, it was later revealed that Kirkpatrick was a paid informant working with Amarillo Police, a fact that the prosecution allegedly did not disclose during the trial.
The majority opinion, written by Judge Patrick Higginbotham, speaks on the impact of the failure to disclose key witness information in Holberth’s case, calling it a direct violation of due process.
“We pause only to acknowledge that 27 years on death row is a reality dimming the light that ought to attend proceedings where a life is at stake, a stark reminder that the jurisprudence of capital punishment remains a work in progress,” Higginbotham wrote.
Holberg, who was 23 at the time of the crime, has maintained that she acted in self-defense after Towery attacked her. During the trial, she testified that she stabbed him out of fear for her life. The prosecution, however, presented the testimony of Kirkpatrick, who alleged that Holberg had confessed to killing Towery for money and drugs during a robbery. Yet, as mentioned, the prosecution did not disclose Kirkpatrick’s status as a confidential informant while doing so.
In 2011, Kirkpatrick retracted her testimony against Holbert, but her recant did not initially lead to a reevaluation of the case, per WFAA. However, the 5th Circuit Court ruled that Kirkpatrick’s testimony had been crucial to the jury’s verdict, making the hidden fact that she was an informant a significant oversight.
While the appeals court’s ruling provides Holberg with a chance for a new trial, the decision was not unanimous. In a dissenting opinion, Judge Stuart Kyle Duncan argued that other physical evidence, including the graphic nature of Towery’s death, would have led the jury to convict Holberg regardless of the police informant’s testimony against her.