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Thread: Rodney Rodell Reed - Texas Death Row

  1. #21
    Senior Member Member George's Avatar
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    Execution date hearing for Rodney Reed on Monday

    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.

    http://www.statesman.com/news/news/l...-monday/ngdRf/

  2. #22
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Rodney Reed's Execution Date Set

    Rodney Reed was convicted in the 1996 rape and murder of Stacy Stites in Bastrop County. He's been on death row since 1998.

    A hearing is set for today where visiting judge Doug Shaver may set a date for his execution.

    Lily Hughes is the national director of the Campaign to End the Death Penalty. The group believes Reed is innocent.

    "His defense attorneys are going to be asking for DNA testing on a couple of different things. And we believe that it's crucial that this DNA testing happens...that the judge and the state sign off on the testing," Hughes said.

    Reed has admitted to having an affair with Stites who was engaged to a police officer named Jimmy Fennell. Fennell is the man Reed's family and attorneys believe is actually responsible for the murder.

    In 2008, Fennell was sent to prison himself for improper sexual activity with a woman in his custody while working for the Georgetown Police Department.

    Fennell's attorney told FOX7 at the time, that situation doesn't reflect on his role in the Rodney Reed case.

    Hughes' group, Rodney Reed's family and his attorneys have tried many times in the past to appeal the case and get a new trial but nothing's worked. They've also had rallies and marches to bring awareness to the situation.

    Hughes says the defense believes the scientific basis for the conviction was flawed at the time of the trial.

    "The medical examiner claimed at trial that the semen DNA could not be more than 24 hours old. And he has since recanted that testimony and many other experts have said that you actually can't say that about semen DNA, it could've been even several days old," Hughes said.

    Hughes says depending on what happens at the trial, taking the case to the supreme court may be the next step.

    "We are hoping that ... the judge will agree to all the DNA testing that the defense is asking that he will write an order for that testing and that he will not set an execution date at this time," Hughes said.

    Recently, the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans rejected the idea that Reed was not responsible for the murder.

    They also rejected claims that critical evidence was withheld in the original trial and that Reed's family and friends knew he was involved with Stacy Stites.

    http://www.myfoxaustin.com/story/260...ate-at-hearing
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  3. #23
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Richard86's Avatar
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    This is going to be a repeat of Troy Davis, this case is being tried in the court of public opinion instead of the legitimate court.

    Just looked up his facebook page, they're claiming 14th January.
    Last edited by Richard86; 07-14-2014 at 01:43 PM.

  4. #24
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Fox news reported the 15th, and KVUE is reporting the 14th I guess we will wait and see what the TDCJ puts on their website.

    The execution date for a Bastrop County man convicted of rape and murder was set for Jan. 14, 2015 at a court hearing Monday.

    Rodney Reed has been on death row since his conviction for the 1996 rape and murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites.

    Reed's attorneys say more DNA testing is needed to prove Reed's innocence. They have repeatedly tried to get an appeal, claiming Reed and Stites were lovers. They also claim that Stites' fiance killed the woman, not Reed.

    Stites' fiance is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for sexually assaulting a woman while he was a Georgetown police officer.

    Reed's appeals have all been denied.

    http://www.kvue.com/story/news/local...-man/12627499/
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  5. #25
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Thanks CURTIS

    Quote Originally Posted by CURTIS
    This happened yesterday in Bastrop Texas

    Judge sets Jan. 14 execution for Rodney Reed in 1996 Bastrop murder


    By Wesley Gardner

    Austin Community Newspapers Staff


    BASTROP — Death row inmate Rodney Reed, who was convicted of capital murder in the grisly 1996 rape and slaying of 19-year-old Bastrop County resident Stacey Stites, received a Jan. 14 date of execution on Monday morning from visiting Judge Doug Shaver.

    Following a 30-minute delay, Reed was escorted into the courtroom around 11:30 a.m., wearing red-and-white striped prison garb. Friends and family members watched from across the aisle, sporting white T-shirts with bold, black letters saying “Free Rodney Reed.”

    Defense attorneys and prosecutors agreed prior to the hearing that several pieces of evidence from the crime scene would be sent to the Department of Public Safety Crime Laboratory Service in Garland for additional DNA testing, according to an order signed by Bastrop County District Attorney Brian Goertz and defense attorney Bryce Benjet.

    Because the date of execution was set for sixth months from now, the crime lab will have ample time to analyze the evidence and return it to prosecutors and defense attorneys, Shaver said.

    Among the items that will be sent in for further testing include swabs taken from Stites’ body, cuttings taken from the victim’s underwear, and strands of hair retrieved the victim’s left sock and several parts of her body
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  6. #26
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Richard86's Avatar
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    I had an interesting thought about this guy last night in terms on an interesting twist on prosecutor's fallacy.

    To give some background, prosecutors fallacy is a statistical error most notably used where a prosecutor conflates the likelihood of an event happening with the likelihood of innocence. A number of British women were accused (and some convicted) of murdering their children on this basis. However at the time, professional statisticians, science bloggers and the Royal Statistical Society, all pointed out that of the competing hypotheses (either that multiple cot deaths occurred in the same household, or that a mother had killed 2 children), the hypothesis that would lead to a not guilty verdict (multiple cot deaths), despite being unlikely is significantly more likely than the murder hypothesis, and no matter how unlikely, one of the 2 events occurred.

    So how does this relate to Reed? Well, Reed's innocence claim is an alternative hypothesis to explain the evidence that unlike many other defense strategies is not completely ridiculous. It's distasteful to suggest it, but it's not implausible to propose a scenario where a philandering fiance is murdered by a jealous partner. Sexual jealousy would indeed be a powerful motive to commit murder, and Fennell's subsequent life doesn't diminish the credibility of this claim.

    But how likely is it? I don't know the exact odds, but judging by the legion of rape-murder cases involving strangers and the rarity (if they've ever happened?) of jealous partners successfully shifting the blame for a murder onto a love rival for nearly 20 years, it doesn't look good for the likelihood of Reed's story.
    Last edited by Richard86; 09-22-2014 at 03:07 PM.

  7. #27
    Senior Member Frequent Poster stixfix69's Avatar
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    In this case, I feel a new trial would be justified, too many questions regarding her ex, who was a dirty cop...to me it really looks like they are protecting their own, and trying to sweep this under the rug....Plenty of reasonable doubt here IMO....

  8. #28
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    I agree there seems to be some doubt as to his guilt.

    Rodney Reed: Innocent on Death Row

    Rodney Reed is facing an execution date of January 14, 2015, despite the fact that important DNA testing is happening that could prove his innocence. Rodney has been on Texas death row since 1998. He was convicted of killing Bastrop woman Stacey Stites in 1996. In March of 2006, Judge Reva Towslee-Corbett (daughter of the original trial judge) heard testimony from several witnesses which linked Stacey's fiancée and former police officer Jimmy Fennell to the crime. The defense also showed how some of this eyewitness testimony was hidden from the defense at the time of trial. However, both the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the federal 5th Circuit Court ruled to deny relief. Hidden eyewitness evidence is not the only problem in this case. Consider these facts:

    • The prosecution’s only evidence linking Rodney to the crime was semen DNA taken from Stacey’s body. However, defense attorneys at trial failed to call witnesses to testify to a known sexual relationship between Rodney and Stacey, which would have accounted for the DNA evidence. They also failed to call two alibi witnesses.


    • During the initial investigation the main suspect was Giddings police officer Jimmy Fennell, who was Stacey’s fiancée. Fennell failed a polygraph test on the question “Did you strangle Stacey Stites?”


    • Police failed to search Stacey and Fennell’s apartment, the last place she was known to be alive. Additionally, police released the truck Stacey was driving the night of the murder to Fennell, who sold the truck a few days later..


    • Two beer cans found at the scene of the crime tested positive for the DNA of at least one police officer. This test was not reported to the defense at the time of the trial.


    • At the 2006 hearings, Martha Barnett testified to seeing Stacey and Fennell together the morning of the murder. Mary Blackwell testified that during a police academy class she overheard Fennell saying that he would kill his girlfriend if she cheated on him, and that he would strangle her with a belt, which was how Stacey was killed. Both women testified that they had shared their stories with the prosecutors at the time of trial.


    • Defense attorney's have shown a pattern of violence on the part of Fennell, including his history of stalking and threatening former girlfriends. Fennell was recently sentenced to prison for the rape of a woman who was in his custody while he was on duty as a police officer in the city of Georgetown, TX.


    • Rodney Reed, a black man, was found guilty of murdering Stacey Stites, a white woman, by an all white jury in Bastrop. Statistics have shown that racial bias exists in the application of the death penalty, including the fact that although over 50% of murder victims are black, over 83% of the victims in death penalty cases are white.


    http://www.nodeathpenalty.org/get-th...cent-death-row
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  9. #29
    Senior Member CnCP Addict Richard86's Avatar
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    I've got some doubt about him as well, but...

    Quote Originally Posted by Helen69 View Post
    The prosecution’s only evidence linking Rodney to the crime was semen DNA taken from Stacey’s body. However, defense attorneys at trial failed to call witnesses to testify to a known sexual relationship between Rodney and Stacey, which would have accounted for the DNA evidence. They also failed to call two alibi witnesses.
    Well, semen in a rape-murder case would pin most people to such a crime. Also I gather that the witnesses to the alleged affair weren't very credible, one of them claimed to have met Stites at school for instance. None of Stites friends claimed that this affair was happening, or that she had problems with Fennell.

    I'd find it a travesty if Reed were to be reprieved just because he claimed he was having an affair with the victim without credible proof of having done so, it would make rape-murder convictions nearly impossible to convict thereafter. He's not the first murderer to use this defence, advocates of Timothy Hennis, Ellis Wayne Felker and Roger Keith Coleman have also used this theory.

    Quote Originally Posted by Helen69 View Post
    During the initial investigation the main suspect was Giddings police officer Jimmy Fennell, who was Stacey’s fiancée. Fennell failed a polygraph test on the question “Did you strangle Stacey Stites?”
    Polygraphs are so useless than an Israeli company who made them sued the Swedish authors of an academic paper proving they don't work in a UK libel court (before our libel laws were tightened up). They're so bad that those who make them aren't willing to defend them in a free market of ideas.

    Quote Originally Posted by Helen69 View Post
    Police failed to search Stacey and Fennell’s apartment, the last place she was known to be alive. Additionally, police released the truck Stacey was driving the night of the murder to Fennell, who sold the truck a few days later..
    On the surface doesn't sound a wise move, but I think police records will explain why the truck was released.

    It's said that Swearingen's trailer was searched 4 times before they found the other half of the pair of tights used to kill his victim (to imply it was planted), when the reality is on the last search they knew what they were looking for, and found it. What sounds like corruption on the surface has a rational explanation when the full story is told.

    Quote Originally Posted by Helen69 View Post
    Two beer cans found at the scene of the crime tested positive for the DNA of at least one police officer. This test was not reported to the defense at the time of the trial.
    This it what gives me my niggling doubt, has this ever been explained? I'll assume that if it's been identified as from a police officer then they know the identity of that officer. If there's an innocent explanation it would have been dismissed quickly.

    Quote Originally Posted by Helen69 View Post
    At the 2006 hearings, Martha Barnett testified to seeing Stacey and Fennell together the morning of the murder. Mary Blackwell testified that during a police academy class she overheard Fennell saying that he would kill his girlfriend if she cheated on him, and that he would strangle her with a belt, which was how Stacey was killed. Both women testified that they had shared their stories with the prosecutors at the time of trial.
    Barnett I believe has had a vendetta against Fennell for many years, and the conversation Blackwell claims to have overheard, the person Fennell was speaking to does not recall him saying that.

    Quote Originally Posted by Helen69 View Post
    Defense attorney's have shown a pattern of violence on the part of Fennell, including his history of stalking and threatening former girlfriends. Fennell was recently sentenced to prison for the rape of a woman who was in his custody while he was on duty as a police officer in the city of Georgetown, TX.
    It could equally be a pattern of violence brought about by the stress of having his fiance raped and murdered, progressively made worse as his name is dragged through the mud by the defence of the man who raped and murdered the woman he loved.

    Quote Originally Posted by Helen69 View Post
    Rodney Reed, a black man, was found guilty of murdering Stacey Stites, a white woman, by an all white jury in Bastrop. Statistics have shown that racial bias exists in the application of the death penalty, including the fact that although over 50% of murder victims are black, over 83% of the victims in death penalty cases are white.
    That's a non-sequitor, black people appear to be disproportionately sentenced to death, therefore Rodney Reed = innocent...?

    From what I see, I think he's proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt, but, I can envisage some new evidence appearing that would cast significant doubt on his conviction. A credible witness to the affair, someone offering a sinister explanation for the beer cans, a confession by Fennell would all do it. It's probably the strongest innocence claim I've seen, but I'm still not buying it.

  10. #30
    Administrator Moh's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Richard86 View Post
    He'd have more credibility if he'd mentioned the affair at the earliest opportunity, doing so only after being told about the DNA match makes it look like a concocted story to explain how he's connected to the victim.
    That kind of clinches it for me barring the emergence of heretofore undiscovered or unreleased evidence of high exculpatory value.

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