Texas Gov. Greg Abbott reportedly announced Friday he agrees with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ call to block the execution of Death Row inmate Rodney Reed indefinitely.
The appeals court’s decision came hours after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended to Abbott to delay the execution by 120 days.
Reed, who is convicted of murder, was five days from the day he was to be put to death.
"I have tears streaming down my cheeks," Andrew MacRae, one of Reed's lawyers, told the New York Daily News. "I'm overwhelmed, but not yet ecstatic, because we have to wait for the governor to act. But assuming he approves this, I'm going to call Rodney's mom, and that will be ecstatic."
Reed’s execution and conviction have been in question due to new evidence his lawyers and thousands of supporters say raises serious doubts about his guilt.
"I have tears streaming down my cheeks." — Andrew MacRae, one of Rodney Reed's lawyers
Bryce Benjet, an attorney with the Innocence Project, which is representing Reed, told The Associated Press there was “powerful new evidence of his innocence” and for possibly allowing DNA testing that could prove “who actually committed the crime.”
According to a Dallas news report, Abbott agreed to delay the execution of the 51-year-old, who was set for lethal injection Wednesday evening, indefinitely. Reed was convicted for the 1996 killing of 19-year-old Stacey Stites.
The conviction
Prosecutors say Reed raped and strangled Stites as she made her way to work at a supermarket in Bastrop, a rural community about 30 miles southeast of Austin. Reed has long maintained he didn't kill Stites and that her fiance, former police officer Jimmy Fennell, was the real killer. Reed says Fennell was angry because Stites, who was white, was having an affair with Reed, who is black. Fennell's attorney has said his client didn’t kill Stites. Fennell was paroled last year after serving time in prison for sexual assault.
Prosecutors say Reed's semen was found in the victim, his claims of an affair with Stites were not proven at trial, Fennell was cleared as a suspect and Reed had a history of committing other sexual assaults. Reed's lawyers say his conviction was based on flawed evidence.
They have denied the other sexual assault accusations made by prosecutors. In recent weeks, Reed's attorneys have presented affidavits in support of his claims of innocence, including one by a former prison inmate who claims Fennell bragged about killing Stites and referred to Reed by a racial slur. Reed's lawyers say other recent affidavits corroborate the relationship between Stites and Reed and show that Fennell was violent and aggressive toward Stites.
How his story made headlines
Reed's efforts to stop his execution have received support from such celebrities as Beyoncé, Kim Kardashian and Oprah. Lawmakers from both parties, including Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz, have also asked that officials take a closer look at the evidence in the case.
Since Texas resumed executions in 1982, only three Death Row inmates have had their sentences commuted to life in prison within days of their scheduled executions.
The parole board since 1982 has recommended commuting a Death Row inmate’s sentence five times. But former Texas Gov. Rick Perry rejected the recommendation twice, in 2004 and 2009.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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