Evidence not given in court violated Brittany Holberg’s right to a fair trial.

A woman who has been on death row for 27 years after being found guilty of murder has had her conviction overturned after shocking new information was revealed.

Brittany Holberg was sentenced to death for the murder of A.B. Towery, 80. Holberg, aged 23 at the time, was said to have struck the pensioner with a hammer, stabbed him 58 times with several different utensils and pushed a foot-long lamp pole down his throat.

She was convicted of capital murder in the course of committing or attempting to commit robbery in 1998, two years after Towery’s death, and has been awaiting execution in the state of Texas for almost 30 years since.

However, it has since come to light that the prosecution did not disclose at the time of Holberg’s trial that their main witness was actually a paid informant.

Judges at US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals have since ruled that her conviction must be quashed 27 years later, the Mirror reports.

Judge Patrick E. Higginbotham said that Holberg’s case is a “stark reminder” that capital punishment is still a “work in progress” – despite it being a penalty allowed by law in 27 of the 50 US states for several decades.

Mr 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.

“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.”

The Brady Doctrine is a rule in US law that requires prosecutors to share all evidence which may prove a defendant’s innocence with the defence. The court referenced the doctrine in their decision to clear Holberg’s death sentence.

Vicky Kirkpatrick, the paid informant with the Amarillo Police Department, had previously shared a jail cell with Holberg, and claimed she had overheard her discussing Towery’s murder.

She made Holberg out to be a drug addict who showed “absolutely no remorse” for her alleged crime.

However, it came to light recently that Randal County prosecutors did not disclose Kirkpatrick’s position as an informant. The appeals court decided that hiding this vital information violated Holberg’s right to a fair trial.

Speaking to KFDA news channel, Randall County District Attorney James Farron said: “We went ahead and used her (Kirkpatrick), but she was not critical to our case.

“It was just one more piece of information that portrayed what I think is true about Brittany Holberg and that she can be a vicious, violent person if you are between her and something she wants badly enough.”

He revealed to the news outlet that the attorney general’s office will now work on overturning the panel that made the decision.