Death row inmate in Barbados freed

Omar DaCosta Holder is a free man. (Picture by Xtra Vision Photography)

(Barbados Nation) The Court of Appeal today released former condemned murderer Omar DaCosta Holder from prison saying his case should not have gone to the jury in light of his unsigned written statement taken while he was in police custody.

Holder, of Pasture Road, Haggatt Hall, St Michael, who was 25 at the time, spent nine years on Death Row.

Omar DaCosta Holder is a free man. (Picture by Xtra Vision Photography)

In 2010, he was convicted of murdering Sakina Walrond, 20, her two-month-old daughter Sha-mya Mapp and three-year-old son Shaqkem Gittens, on March 31, 2005, by hitting Walrond on the head as she slept and then setting their Haggatt Hall home ablaze.

Accompanied by attorney Kyle Walkes, who stood in for an absent

Queen’s Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, Holder said it felt good to be free, adding he knew he had been framed or set-up.