The case of Rodney Reed
has been much in the news lately; convicted of murdering a police officer’s fiancée
back in 1996, Reed is slated for execution this March. There are quite a few
great articles out there with details about the case but long story short, he
was convicted mainly because his DNA was found inside Stacey Stites’ body.
After going through the
lengthy appeals process Reed is scheduled to die on March 5. As early as 2002, questions
have been raised about the reliability of his conviction. It appears that
Stites and Reed were involved in a clandestine relationship, which could explain
why there was evidence of sex but nothing else linking Reed to the murder.
Misinterpretation of an
expert’s testimony regarding the time of death and incorrect testimony about
the life of the DNA found contributed to the conviction.
“…there
is one essential piece of physical evidence that Reed's defense attorneys say
they never even knew existed. A state DPS lab report, dated May 13, 1998,
analyzed DNA taken from two beer cans found near Stites' body. For reasons
never satisfactorily explained, that lab report was never provided to the
defense prior to or during Reed's trial. The analysis excluded Reed, but two
other potential suspects -- former Bastrop Police Officer Ed Salmela (now dead,
apparently by suicide), and former Giddings Police Officer David Hall, a good
friend and neighbor of Fennell -- could not be excluded. Had they been aware of
that DNA evidence, Clay-Jackson said, it would have enabled the defense to
offer an adequate explanation of how Fennell could have traveled from Giddings
to Bastrop and then back home by 6:45am without the pickup truck, when the call
came from HEB reporting that Stites had never arrived for work.”
Jimmy Fennell, the fiancé,
is currently incarcerated for the raping a woman while on
duty. It will be interesting to see how this case turns out, and whether Texas
will be willing to take a closer look at another potentially wrongful
conviction.
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