Supreme Court Allows Texas Death Row Inmate Rodney Reed to Pursue DNA Testing in Bid to Prove Innocence

From [HERE] The U.S. Supreme Court cleared the way Wednesday for Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to pursue DNA testing on evidence that his attorneys say may help exonerate him.

Reed, a Black man, was convicted in 1998 of killing Stacey Stites, a white 19-year-old, in Bastrop. Reed has maintained his innocence and has been engaged in a yearslong battle to get crime scene evidence, including the murder weapon, tested for traces of DNA.

“The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling today is a critical step toward the ultimate goal of getting DNA testing in Rodney Reed’s case,” said Parker Rider-Longmaid, one of Reed’s attorneys. “We are grateful that the Court has kept the courthouse doors open to Mr. Reed, a Black man who has spent 24 years on death row for the murder of a white woman with whom he was having an affair, a crime he has steadfastly maintained he did not commit.”

Reed was set to be executed in November 2019, but the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals stayed the execution and sent his case back to a lower court to review new claims, including that Reed was innocent. But after a 2021 evidentiary hearing, the district judge ruled against granting Reed a new trial. [MORE]