Rodney Reed
Rodney Reed | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 22, 1967 |
| Nationality | American |
| Criminal status | In prison |
| Criminal charge | Murder, rape |
| Penalty | Death |
| Details | |
| Victims | 1 |
| Date | April 23, 1996 |
| Location(s) | Bastrop, Texas |
| Killed | Stacey Stites |
| Imprisoned at | Allan B. Polunsky Unit |
Rodney Reed (born December 22, 1967) is an American criminal who was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of Stacey Stites in the town of Bastrop, Texas on April 23, 1996. He has resided on Texas Death Row since May 1998.[1]
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.[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; however, police felt the claim was not credible.[4] Three years later, in Bastrop, Texas, he allegedly 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.[5][better source needed]
A year after the murder of Stacey Stites, Reed allegedly attacked Linda Schlueter in Bastrop after pushing his way into her car. The woman managed to escape and reach the police.[5][better source needed] 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 if he knew Stites, he insisted that he did not and committed his declaration to writing.[citation needed] After confronting him with the DNA evidence he was charged with aggravated sexual assault and capital murder on April 4, 1997.[6] 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.[6][7][5]
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.[6] 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.[5]
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.[8]
In popular culture
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.[citation needed]
References
- ^ "Texas Department of Criminal Justice Offender Search". offender.tdcj.texas.gov.
- ^ Burns, Catherine (2019-11-06). "Prisoner backed by Rihanna 'scared' of execution". Retrieved 2019-11-06.
- ^ "Texas state senators seek reprieve for death row inmate Rodney Reed". NBC News. Retrieved 2019-11-09.
- ^ a b Choate, Trish. "How a Wichita Falls rape case helped put man convicted of murder on death row". Wichita Falls.
- ^ a b c d "Who Is Rodney Reed?". December 31, 2013.
- ^ a b c Barer, David (April 22, 2015). "The Rodney Reed Case: Murder in the Lost Pines". KXAN.com.[dead link]
- ^ Smith, Jordan (November 8, 2019). "Texas Prepares to Execute Rodney Reed Amid a Flood of New Evidence Pointing to His Innocence".
- ^ 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.
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