Glenn Holladay: Murders, Atkins Claim, and Death in Prison

Glenn Holladay was an Alabama man convicted in 1987 of the capital murder of his ex-wife, her boyfriend, and a teenage neighbor at a mobile home outside Gadsden. He spent more than two decades on death row before becoming the first condemned prisoner in Alabama to have his execution barred on the ground of intellectual disability under Atkins v. Virginia. Resentenced to life without parole in 2009, he died of cancer in prison in 2012 at age 62.¹

The Tidmore Bend Murders

Around 2 a.m. on August 25, 1986, Holladay forced his way into a mobile home on Tidmore Bend Road in the rural outskirts of Gadsden and shot three people to death.² The victims were his ex-wife, Rebecca Ledbetter Holladay, 31; her boyfriend, William David Robinson, 25; and Larry Thomas Jr., a 16-year-old neighbor.³ Robinson was shot in the arm and chest, and Rebecca Holladay was shot in the back of the head. All three died from gunshot wounds.⁴

Rebecca’s sister Katrina Ledbetter and Rebecca’s son Shea Ledbetter were also inside the trailer. Thomas, who had been visiting Shea, walked outside and was shot first. Holladay then burst in, shoving Katrina aside as she yelled a warning to her sister in the bedroom. Katrina and Shea fled to the nearby home of Thomas’s parents.⁵ Two teenagers present during the attack escaped physically unharmed.²

Jail Escape, Manhunt, and Capture

Holladay was 37 and a fugitive when he committed the killings. His record included roughly ten to twelve felonies: burglary, receiving stolen property, rape, and assault. On March 18, 1986, he escaped from the Cherokee County Jail, where he was being held on a charge of buying and receiving stolen property. After the escape he resumed contact with Rebecca before killing her and the two others.⁵

The triple homicide triggered what Etowah County Chief Deputy Johnny Grant called one of the biggest task forces the area had seen, drawing state, federal, and local law enforcement.³ Holladay evaded capture for nearly two months. During that time he allegedly kidnapped a young man and forced him to drive to Georgia because Holladay could not read road signs.⁶

He was finally apprehended on October 9, 1986, in Florida, after police responded to a report of someone peeking into an apartment window. Holladay grabbed a deputy’s service revolver during the encounter and was shot with the officer’s backup weapon.⁷ He was also accused of committing a rape in Gainesville earlier that same day, though available records do not indicate he was prosecuted for it.³ By the time of his trial, court records note, he had been shot by law enforcement three times in his life.⁵

Holladay was also named the prime suspect in the death of Doyle Embry Wallace, a retired state trooper from Southside, Alabama. The Etowah County Sheriff’s office said he confessed to that killing, and to being present at the scene of an unsolved murder in the Duck Springs community, but he was never charged in either case.⁸

Capital Conviction and Death Sentence

On July 27, 1987, Holladay was convicted of three counts of capital murder and sentenced to death. Security at the trial was unusually tight. He appeared in shackles, and the courtroom was outfitted with metal detectors and staffed by Gadsden police and state troopers.¹⁰ That finding would later anchor the fight to spare his life. The Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals and the Alabama Supreme Court affirmed the conviction and death sentence in 1988 and 1989, and the U.S. Supreme Court denied certiorari in 1989 and again in 1994.⁵

The Atkins Claim That Saved His Life

Holladay’s first federal habeas petition was denied in 1998 and that denial affirmed by the Eleventh Circuit in 2000. An execution was scheduled for June 2001 and halted by the U.S. Supreme Court on the day it was to take place, due to questions about his mental capacity.¹¹

In 2002, the U.S. Supreme Court held in Atkins v. Virginia that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s ban on cruel and unusual punishment. Alabama set a new execution date of May 29, 2003. With Holladay days from being put to death, attorneys from the Equal Justice Initiative obtained a stay and secured permission from the Eleventh Circuit to file a second habeas petition raising an Atkins claim.¹²

In In re: Glenn Holladay, decided May 26, 2003, a panel of Judges Tjoflat, Anderson, and Marcus found that Holladay had made a prima facie showing of intellectual disability. The court cited ten IQ tests with a mean score of 64 and the trial judge’s own earlier finding that Holladay was “slightly mentally retarded.”¹³

On remand, U.S. District Judge Robert Propst held an evidentiary hearing with competing expert testimony. In Holladay v. Campbell, 463 F.Supp.2d 1324 (N.D. Ala. 2006), Judge Propst found “overwhelming substantial evidence” that Holladay’s IQ had been below 70 since before age 18 and that he had significant adaptive deficits.¹⁴

On January 30, 2009, the same Eleventh Circuit panel affirmed in Holladay v. Allen. The court noted that the range of Holladay’s adult IQ scores (65 to 73) was narrow, with a mean of 64, below Alabama’s threshold of 70. School records had described him as “definitely mentally retarded,” and he had been placed in special education, could not perform basic tasks, and had a poor work history.¹⁵ The decision made Holladay the first death row prisoner in Alabama to establish, over the state’s opposition, that his execution was barred on the ground of intellectual disability.¹² Bryan Stevenson, founder of the Equal Justice Initiative, was court-appointed counsel and argued the appeal in April 2008.¹⁴

Resentenced to Life Without Parole

With execution barred, the case returned to Etowah County. Alabama law permits only two sentences for capital murder: death or life without the possibility of parole. On June 26, 2009, Circuit Judge Allen Millican resentenced Holladay to life without parole, telling him, “You will leave prison in a pine box,” and stating that he had “no choice but to follow a federal court order.”¹⁶ By then Holladay had spent more than 20 years on death row.

Death in Prison

Glenn Holladay died at 6:07 a.m. on March 13, 2012, in the infirmary of the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility in Bessemer, Alabama. He was 62. Prison officials gave the cause of death as cancer, a condition he had been previously diagnosed with.¹

1
AL.com. Former Death Row Inmate Dies at Donaldson Correctional Facility
2
Los Angeles Times. Jail Escapee Kills Three in Alabama
3
Gadsden Times. Convicted Killer Holladay Dies in Prison
4
vLex. Holladay v. Haley
5
FindLaw. Holladay v. Haley
6
Tuscaloosa News. Alabama Should Not Continue to Press for Holladay’s Execution
7
Gadsden Times. Glenn Holladay Back in Etowah County Jail
8
WBRC. Convicted Etowah County Killer Dead at 62
9
10
FindLaw. Holladay v. Haley
During sentencing, the trial judge found Holladay to be “slightly mentally retarded,” a characterization the prosecutor echoed in closing arguments.9Equal Justice Initiative. EJI Wins Relief for Glenn Holladay
11
Gadsden Times. Court Sets New Execution Date for Holladay
12
Equal Justice Initiative. EJI Wins Relief for Glenn Holladay
13
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. In Re: Glenn Holladay
14
FindLaw. Holladay v. Allen
15
Equal Justice Initiative. Holladay v. Allen, Eleventh Circuit Opinion
16
Gadsden Times. Judge to Holladay: You Get to Come Out of Prison in a Pine Box