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Rodney Reed

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Rodney Reed
Born (1967-12-22) December 22, 1967 (age 56)
Texas
Criminal chargeMurder, rape
PenaltyDeath
Details
Victims1
DateApril 23, 1996
Location(s)Bastrop, Texas
KilledStacey Stites

Rodney Reed (born December 22, 1967) is an American jail inmate who has resided on Texas Death Row since May 1998. He was sentenced to death for the murder by strangulation and rape of Stacey Stites in the town of Bastrop, Texas on April 23, 1996.

His death sentence remains controversial. Reed's semen was found inside Stites' badly beaten and discarded body. His explanation for the semen, after initially denying that he knew Stites, was that he had consensual sex with her the day before her death. However, expert witnesses stated that sperm could not have survived inside her body for that long,[1] despite doctors agreeing that sperm can survive for up to 72 hours.[2]

His execution is scheduled to take place on November 20, 2019. Doubt over Reed's guilt led to bipartisan support for a stay of his execution.[3]

Criminal History

On September 1, 1987, Reed was arrested at Hirschi High School and charged with aggravated sexual assault. The sexual assault occurred on Aug. 25, 1987 in a northside Wichita Falls home to a 19-year-old woman. Reed insisted the sex was consensual and that he only beat her after they got into a fight. The jury acquitted Reed of the sexual assault.[4] Immediately after the acquittal, another woman came forward to accused Reed of sexual assault. Having just lost a case against Reed, the police were reluctant to look into another.[5][6] Three years later, in Bastrop, Texas, he raped and sodomized his girlfriend in front of their children. The woman claimed that he was enraged after she kicked him out, but after filing a police report in which she described the horrific attack she declined to press charges.[7]

A year after the murder of Stacey Stites, Reed attacked Linda Schlueterby in Bastrop after pushing his way into her car. He also stole her car. The woman managed to escape and reach the police, where she identified Reed in a photo lineup.[8] At this time Reed's DNA was collected from the previous sexual assault trial and it was confirmed that his DNA matched the DNA in the semen found in Stacey Stites. When asked it he knew Stites, he insisted that he did not and committed his declaration to writing. After confronting him with the DNA evidence he was charged with aggravated sexual assault and capital murder on April 4, 1997.[9] When Rodney's DNA was compared to several other unsolved rape cases in the area, additional matches were discovered. And since then additional strong accusations of rape have been made against Reed, including that of a vicious sexual assault of a 12-year-old girl, for which there is DNA evidence linking him to the act.[10][11][12] One of the additional victims identified through DNA evidence was Vivian Harbottle. She explained that,

“after he raped me, he had this look in his eyes like he wanted to kill me. I begged him for my life. I told him that I had three kids… He just kept staring at me. I was crying ‘please don’t kill me’ and then he finally left.”[13]

Claim of Innocence

Despite having insisted previously that he had not known Stites, his defense team claimed that he and Stites were in fact having a clandestine relationship.[14] To date, Reed has been unable to provide a single piece of physical evidence supporting his claim that he had been having a secret affair with Stites. His family supported his claim of a secret relationship with Stites at the trial. However, no such claims were forthcoming during the year before Reed was arrested, a time when police interviewed hundreds of people in the town.[15]

The defense has argued that there are weaknesses in the prosecution's case, such as the murder weapon never being tested for DNA evidence, as well as Stites' fiancé being a potential suspect.[16]

Reed is the subject of the documentary films State vs. Reed, produced by Frank Bustoz and Ryan Polomski, as well as Plea for Justice: Save Rodney Reed.

References

  1. ^ Burns, Catherine (2019-11-06). "Prisoner backed by Rihanna 'scared' of execution". Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  2. ^ "Conception: From Egg to Embryo Slideshow". webmd.com. 2019-02-11. Retrieved 2019-11-06.
  3. ^ "Texas state senators seek reprieve for death row inmate Rodney Reed". NBC News. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
  4. ^ "How a Wichita Falls rape case helped put man convicted of murder on death row," Times Record News, Nov. 6, 2019; https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/2019/11/06/wichita-falls-rape-case-put-rodney-rodell-reed-texas-death-row/4170727002/
  5. ^ Revealed: Why the police are failing most rape victims," The Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Feb. 28, 2014; https://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/stories/2014-02-28/revealed-why-the-police-are-failing-most-rape-victims
  6. ^ "How a Wichita Falls rape case helped put man convicted of murder on death row," Times Record News, Nov. 6, 2019; https://www.timesrecordnews.com/story/news/2019/11/06/wichita-falls-rape-case-put-rodney-rodell-reed-texas-death-row/4170727002/
  7. ^ "Who is Rodney Reed?"http://www.michaelcorcoran.net/archives/3005
  8. ^ "Who is Rodney Reed?"http://www.michaelcorcoran.net/archives/3005
  9. ^ "Murder in the Lost Pines," KXAN Investigates; https://media.kxan.com/nxs-kxantv-media-us-east-1/story/rodneyreed/index.html
  10. ^ "Murder in the Lost Pines," KXAN Investigates; https://media.kxan.com/nxs-kxantv-media-us-east-1/story/rodneyreed/index.html
  11. ^ Jordan Smith, "Texas Prepares to Execute Rodney Reed Amid a Flood of New Evidence Pointing to His Innocence," The Intercept; https://theintercept.com/2019/11/08/rodney-reed-death-row-texas/
  12. ^ "Who is Rodney Reed?"http://www.michaelcorcoran.net/archives/3005
  13. ^ "Alleged Rodney Reed victim speaks out about 1995 rape;" http://www.michaelcorcoran.net/archives/3712
  14. ^ "Murder in the Lost Pines," KXAN Investigates; https://media.kxan.com/nxs-kxantv-media-us-east-1/story/rodneyreed/index.html
  15. ^ "Who is Rodney Reed?"http://www.michaelcorcoran.net/archives/3005
  16. ^ CNN, Darran Simon, Ashley Killough and Ed Lavandera. "The outcry to stop the execution of Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed is growing. The support has 'bolstered him,' his attorney says". CNN. Retrieved 2019-11-09. {{cite web}}: |last= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
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