Reed, a Black man on death row for more than 25 years, has gained international support for his claims that he did not kill 19-year-old Stacey Stites, a white woman. Another appeal over DNA testing of evidence is still pending.
In rejecting Reed’s claims of innocence, the high courtof retired state District Judge J.D. Langley. Jane Pucher, one of Reed’s attorneys with The Innocence Project, condemned the ruling in a statement Wednesday and said they “will continue to fight for Mr. Reed’s freedom and bring him home to his family.”
Both men have been accused of multiple sexual assaults. Reed was indicted, but never convicted, in several other rape cases. Fennell spent 10 years in prison after he kidnapped and allegedly raped a woman while on duty as a police officer in 2007. In recent years, Reed’s attorneys have presented witnesses who corroborate that he had a relationship with Stites and others who said Fennell was abusive toward Stites or that he suspected she was having an affair with a Black man. Reed’s legal team also brought forward pathologists who said Stites was likely killed before the time Fennell told police she left their home for work, when she was alone with him.
In its extensive ruling, the Court of Criminal Appeals went through each aspect of evidence raised by Reed and the state over the decades of litigation, picking apart the credibility of evidence that could point to a consensual relationship between Stites and Reed to testimony that implicated Fennell as her killer.
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