Brittany Holberg, inmate on Texas death row for 27 years, has her conviction tossed by federal appeals court

[Ban Hammer 13,818]

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 appeals court disagreed, saying that the informant was critical to the jury's determination of guilt and that the prosecution violated Holberg's due process rights by hiding information that, according to a landmark U.S. Supreme court ruling called the Brady doctrine, must be disclosed. Writing for the majority, judge Patrick E. Higginbotham cast Holberg's case as a blight on the criminal justice system.

more at https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-death-row-brittany-holberg-conviction-reversed-federal-appeals-court/