Innmate has Death Row sentence quashed – and she or he might stroll free after 27 years

After 27 years on death row, Brittany Holberg has learned she is no longer condemned after the prosecution in her original trial failed to disclose crucial information.

In November 1996, Holbery, then 23, crashed her car while high on crack cocaine and asked A.B Towery, an 80-year-old man and existing client, for help. The pair then got into a heated argument after Towery invited her into his home when he spotted a crack pipe, before labeling her a “stupid b****, w****,” according to court documents.

Towery was murdered and left with a lamp jammed down his throat, however Holberg claimed self-defense.

While detained in Randall County Jail facing murder charges, Holberg admitted to her cellmate Vickie Kirkpatrick that she had killed Towery “in order to get money” and said she would “do it all over again for more drugs.”

Kirkpatrick then went on to testify at her trial and Holberg, now aged 52, was convicted of capital murder in March 1998, and sentenced to death. Kirkpatrick testified that Holberg told her she stuck a lamp down Towery’s throat as she was fed up with him “gurgling.” She also claimed Holberg initiated the altercation to get a money “fix.”

As their primary witness, prosecutors relied on Kirkpatrick’s testimony, which completely unravelled Holberg’s claim of self-defense. However, they failed to disclose that she was actually a confidential, paid informant for the Amarillo Police Department.

Instead, she’d been simply presented as a “disinterested individual who ‘wanted to do the right thing,” Circuit Judge Patrick Higginbotham wrote.

Earlier this month, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals reversed Holberg’s death sentence in a 2-1 decision and her murder conviction is being re-looked at to decide how to proceed.

Texas Court of Criminal Appeals nor a federal district court found that prosecutors had violated Holberg’s constitutional right to a fair trial after Kirkpatrick recanted her testimony.

But the appeals court disagreed and said the informant was critical to the jury’s decision.

The court wrote: “This narrative, which the jury did not hear, raises Kirkpatrick’s credibility: either her testimony at trial was supplied by the State, or her recantation was a lie.”

Judge Higginbotham said: “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.”

Kirkpatrick was believed to have been a prolific informant who secured some 40 search warrants and multiple convictions while receiving thousands of dollars from the Amarillo police, according to the Equal Justice Initiative.

She allegedly received thousands of dollars in exchange for her information and had been in daily communication with Amarillo police for months before they put her in a cell with Holberg.

For the latest breaking news and stories from across the globe from the Daily Star, sign up for our newsletter by clicking here.