Rodney Reed has maintained his innocence and claims there is evidence to back that. But an appeals court denied a new trial request.
Crime scene evidence - including the belt used to strangle Stacey Stites and her clothing - was not tested for DNA, and Reed has unsuccessfully sought testing to help establish his innocence. Prosecutors have fought the efforts, arguing that state mishandling of the evidence means the DNA could be contaminated and testing results unreliable in the 1996 killing.
Reed was condemned for the 1996 killing of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. Prosecutors say he 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. The Texas Attorney General's Office, which argued the case on behalf of the state during the appeals process, didn't return an email seeking comment Wednesday.
Reed, 55, has long maintained that Stites' 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, who served time for sexual assault and was released from prison in 2018, has denied killing Stites. Reed's attorneys have also accused prosecutors of suppressing evidence.
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