Death row inmate Rodney Reed, who was convicted of capital murder in the grisly 1996 rape and murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites, will return to the Bastrop County Courthouse Monday morning for a hearing that could potentially set his execution date.
Prosecutors will urge visiting Judge Doug Shaver, who is stepping in after District Court Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett recused herself from the case, to issue a death warrant scheduling a Nov. 19 lethal injection for Reed after a number of requests for appeal from Reed’s defense have failed to gain any traction with the courts.
Reed’s defense claims to have nine sworn witnesses supporting claims that Reed and Stites had been romantically involved months before her death, explaining the presence of his semen in her body, according to an appeal filed by Bryce Benjet, Reed’s defense attorney.
The defense also points to Jimmy Fennell, Stites’ fiance at the time of her death, as the person most likely responsible for Stites’ murder. Fennell is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a woman in his custody while employed as a Georgetown police officer.
When initially tried in 1998, Reed’s defense attorneys provided no eyewitness accounts suggesting Reed and Stites had been romantically involved. Reed had also initially denied having known Stites in any capacity when first questioned by police more than a year after her death.
Additional witnesses have provided testimony that has either been proven false or contradictory to existing evidence. Without reliable evidence demonstrating that Reed and Stites were involved in a previous relationship, the DNA found in Stite’s body effectively condemns him, according to the opinion of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in January.
When appealing a case based on evidence that was either unavailable at the time of trial or based on evidence arising from technological advancements, court officials are required to consider “all of the evidence, old and new, incriminating and exculpatory, without regard to whether it would necessarily be admitted under ‘rules of admissibility that would govern at trial.’”
While that does allow defense lawyers to produce new evidence they believe will exonerate Reed, it also brings forward five indictments for rape and attempted rape that were brought against Reed both during and after his trial, as well as a sexual assault case Reed had been acquitted of in 1991.
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