Fifth Circuit Reverses Brittany Holberg's Capital Murder Conviction Based on Brady Violations

Yesterday, the Fifth Circuit reversed the capital murder conviction of Brittany Holberg in Holberg v. Guerrero, framing the case as follows:

Brittany Marlowe Holberg was 23 years old when she was sentenced to death for capital murder by a jury in Amarillo, Texas. Holberg has spent the last 27 years of her life on death row, contending that the State of Texas violated her right to due process when it chose to disobey the commands of Brady v. Maryland, 373 U.S. 83 (1963), and failed to disclose impeachment evidence that its critical trial witness was a paid informant. Under Brady and its progeny, we REVERSE and VACATE Holberg’s conviction, and REMAND the case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

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. The death penalty itself has traversed a torturous path in this country, dragging Ms. Holberg along with it. From the return of capital punishment in the Seventies—paired with a veritable flood of habeas petitions—came attendant efforts to temper the flow. In the service of federalism and management, Congress enlisted the aid of the lower federal courts by routing review of state decisions to the district courts through the gates of the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act of 1996 (“AEDPA”). Yet capital punishment cannot survive without adherence to the fundamental constitutional girds securing the right to trial by jury. Ms. Holberg’s 27 years on death row is a showcase of the State’s failure to abide by a core structure of prosecution: the Brady doctrine.

Here were the critical facts of the case:

This is the story of Brittany Marlowe Holberg, a bright young woman who—after a childhood and adolescence marked by repeated sexual abuse and trauma—fell into the iron grip of crack cocaine and turned to prostitution to support her addiction.

On November 13, 1996, after ten consecutive days of a high on crack cocaine, Holberg had a minor traffic accident and sought refuge in the apartment of a former customer, A.B. Towery, Sr. A heated argument followed that quickly turned violent, leaving Towery dead with stab wounds and part of a lamp in his throat, and with Holberg leaving the apartment cut and bruised, bleeding from the head where Towery struck her and tore out clumps of her hair. A crime scene investigation was performed on November 14 and an autopsy report completed on November 15.fic accident and sought refuge in the apartment of a former customer, A.B. Towery, Sr. A heated argument followed that quickly turned violent, leaving Towery dead with stab wounds and part of a lamp in his throat, and with Holberg leaving the apartment cut and bruised, bleeding from the head where Towery struck her and tore out clumps of her hair. A crime scene investigation was performed on November 14 and an autopsy report completed on November 15.

According to the Fifth Circuit,

Holberg was arrested in Memphis, Tennessee in February 1997 and was extradited to Amarillo, Texas, where she was held in the Randall County Jail. There, the local District Attorney’s Office unsuccessfully approached multiple inmates, including Holberg’s cellmates, to question them about Holberg and offered them deals in exchange for their testimony against her. The prosecution also attempted to feed them false narratives. One of Holberg’s cellmates, Lynette Tucker, stated that she “never heard [Holberg] boast about the death of A.B. Towery[,]” but that the prosecution told her that “it would be in [her] best interest” “to say [she] knew [Holberg] longer than [she] did, and that [Holberg] bragged about the killing.”

About three months after Holberg’s arrest, in May 1997, Vickie Marie Kirkpatrick was arrested for felony burglary. At the time, Kirkpatrick was working as a confidential informant for Corporal Eddie Stallings of the City of Amarillo police and was placed in the same cell as Holberg. Just two days later, Kirkpatrick produced her statement to the Amarillo police detailing Holberg’s alleged admission. Crucial details in Kirkpatrick’s affidavit corroborated findings from the autopsy report and the crime scene investigation, which had been with law enforcement for six months.

That same day, Corporal Stallings secured a dismissal of a criminal trespass charge against Kirkpatrick and helped her gain release on bond. But Corporal Stallings left the felony burglary charge pending until after Kirkpatrick testified against Holberg at trial.

The reversal of Holberg's cases was primarily based upon the Brady violation in connection with the State failing to disclose that Kirkpatrick was an incentivized confidential informant who was the heart of the State's case against her. According to the Fifth Circuit,

Besides Holberg’s own description of the events, Kirkpatrick provided the sole testimony of what happened inside Towery’s apartment. The prosecution pointed to additional circumstantial evidence—such as the amount of money on Holberg’s person after exiting Towery’s apartment, prescriptions missing from Towery’s apartment, and the rifled contents of Towery’s wallet—to argue Holberg killed Towery while robbing him. The jury convicted her of murder and sentenced her to death....

Holberg, her counsel, and hence the Amarillo jury had no knowledge that Kirkpatrick was a confidential informant for Corporal Stallings; that in the months leading up to Holberg’s alleged confession, Kirkpatrick had almost daily contact with Corporal Stallings, who paid her $100 for each drug buy; that he paid her thousands of dollars to make drug buys; and that Kirkpatrick helped the Amarillo police run approximately 40 search warrants and secure multiple convictions.

A heartbreaking case and yet another example of prosecutorial misconduct confining a wrongfully convicted person to death row for decades.

-CM