Rodney Reed

Convicted on ‘flimsy’ Evidence

Compiled from Campaign to end the Death Penalty
24thAugust 2008
Any news updates on this case will be listed at the foot of this item

Rodney Reed has been on Texas death row since 1998 for a crime that he insists he didn’t commit. Lawyers for Rodney Reed have argued before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals that he didn’t get a fair trial when he was convicted in 1998 for the murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites.

So many things wrong with the Texas death penalty system are present in this case. Rodney is Black, and the murder victim he was convicted of killing is white. He had poor legal representation at his trial. And he was tried by an all-white jury.

But Rodney has had strong support from his family, including his mother Sandra. The Campaign chapter in Austin has helped to organise a defence. Along with family members, they have held numerous large public demonstrations to bring more attention to Rodney’s case.

Stacy Stites’ fiancé, Jimmy Fennell, was a police officer in nearby Giddings. Fennell had a record of brutality in the Giddings Police Department, including one incident in which he pulled his service revolver on an unarmed Hispanic man during a routine traffic stop.

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According to the lead investigator in the Reed case, Fennell became the chief suspect immediately. During his questioning, he twice failed polygraph tests on the question of whether he had strangled Stites. The apartment that Fennell and Stites shared was never searched, although it was the last place Stites was known to be alive.

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