The prosecutors will face no repercussions for destroying most of this woman's life. I hope she sues the state and gets a fat check (at the expense of the taxpayers), but those scumbags should be the ones who have to pay.
this post was submitted on 12 Mar 2025
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Gimmy 5 bucks I'll tell you everything Luigi did! I saw it all on reddit.
Nevermind I'm banned from reddit. But can I please just make stuff up? $5 bucks!
In a lone dissent, circuit judge Stuart Kyle Duncan, a Donald Trump appointee
shock
Not really enough into to judge. Frail old man? What was their relationship? Eg. If he abused her as a child I'd say she's been in there long enough.
Looked up this story in the local paper for a bit more context
Responding officers found Towery in his home dead from multiple stab wounds. Part of a lamp was stuck in his throat.
Unsure how this happens in a self defense situation. Imo if you were threatened and under duress you're gonna do what you have to do, but he was 80 years old
Fearing for her life and fueled by crack cocaine, she overcame Towery and stabbed him repeatedly -- 58 times according to an autopsy report. The evidence showed Holberg also beat Towery with a claw hammer multiple times. “I lost it," Holberg told jurors.
The reasoning behind the Trump-appointed judge's dissent:
"No jury in its right mind would believe that a 23-year-old cocaine-addled prostitute 'defended' herself against a frail old man by (1) stabbing him 58 times, (2) bludgeoning him with various objects including a steam iron, and (3) ramming a lamp base down his throat while he was still alive," Duncan wrote.
In the surface that's pretty reasonable, but the issue is the planted informant being encouraged to further incriminate the defendant:
However, the majority of the judges believed prosecutors heavily relied on Kirkpatrick's testimony -- particularly her description of how Holberg enjoyed killing Towery -- to secure the conviction and during the punishment phase of the trial when they asked for the death sentence.
If the evidence was so good, why did the prosecution fabricate a witness? ... Your explanation glosses over this key fact.
And also, people can protect themselves and later make crazy decisions. That is definitely possible. Likely, even, if they are on hard drugs. So the shocking evidence, well, it isn't so easy to interpret. Which is why a jury has to deal with it, not that Trump judge, and not you and me.
That's the thing. It does not and should not matter if she did the deed. Using corrupt means to convict her invalidates the entire process. And that's because if they used corrupt means on her then they can use them on you. Prosecutors and police doing that are trying to usurp the role of the court.
That said SCOTUS will rule that she should be immediately executed in the most inhumane way possible.
It absolutely should matter if she did the deed, as that makes her a murderer, but I will concede that if they used corrupt means to convict her it does invalidate the whole process.
There is a very fine balance to be struck here that I don't think I can do justice.
There is not a fine balance.
Innocent until proven guilty. The prosecution did not do a legal and lawful job of getting a conviction, so right now she's innocent. In other words, if you're trying to do reasoning based on "what if she's a murderer", then we already have that answer sitting in front of us.
That's the basic premise of the legal system. Now, if you are some omniscient being, then you might be able to do other types of reasoning. But we aren't, and we never will be, so we can't.
In other words, there is no fine balance. The prosecution decided their case wasn't good enough to be presented fairly, and they somehow got away with their evil actions for the past 27 years.
Ethically it certainly matters. But systems wise we cannot incentivize it. Which is why corrupt prosecutions are legally supposed to result in removing the conviction. She's certainly not magically a good person. And iirc most states allow another trial.
This is why the death penalty or even prison sentences longer than a decade should be eliminated...
I agree that there shouldn’t be a death penalty. I also think that any life sentence should always have the opportunity for parole.
But some people need to be removed from society for the sake of the community. Releasing serial offenders just guarantees more victims.
There are plenty of countries with a 20 year max doing just fine. They usually have an exception for the criminally insane. Anyone else should be getting out at some point.
You mean like the Dutch who sent a convicted pedophile to the Olympics?
Edit: sorry getting a 12 year old drunk and raping her doesn't make you a pedo according to The Dutch Olympic committee
Hey he got a sentence 3.5 years longer than Brock Turner. Don't act like he would have been in prison for life in the US.
Brock Turner? The rapist Brock Turner? The same Brock Turner who goes by Allen Turner now because he kept getting called a rapist?
Allen Turner the rapist? Rapist, Allen Turner? Who used to go by "Brock Turner The Rapist"?
Yeah, that asshole.
I also think that any life sentence should always have the opportunity for parole.
Oh god, no. I've seen too many true crime shows to know that some people would go back to killing as soon as they get out.
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So Texas is going to execute her anyway, right? Or was that just Missouri?
Simple clerical error what's 14 more years on death row?
The sick lunatic, Holberg, is the perfect congressional candidate for the Government of Putin.
I drive through or spend the night in Amarillo on occasion. Welp, when the gates of hell finally open, I have my idea where it'll happen.
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