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Rodney Reed is currently on death row in the state of Texas. His family and supporters are continuing their valiant effort to get this decision reversed as he is set to be executed in less than three weeks. A change.org petition lobby’s for the execution to be stopped, it also claims that all new evidence found in the case should be presented to a jury in a new trial. The petition has garnered more than 100,000 signatures.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott is facing continuing pressure to halt Reed’s execution. On October 19, Kim Kardashian tweeted to her 62 million followers: “Please @GovAbbott How can you execute a man when since his trial, substantial evidence that would exonerate Rodney Reed has come forward and even implicates the other person of interest. I URGE YOU TO DO THE RIGHT THING.
Rodney Reed has spent the past 21 years of his life on death row after he was convicted of raping and murdering Stacey Stites in 1996. Reed claims that he was having an affair with Stites when she was murdered in 1996.
Heather Stobbs, the cousin of Stacey Stites, believes Stites ex-fiance, Jimmy Fennell is the real killer. Fennell, finished a 10-year prison sentence in 2018, for sexually assaulting a woman in his custody.
“[The sexual assault] kind of switched my whole viewpoint on him, and I kind of realized what a pattern of behavior this was for him,” said Stobbs.
Reed was charged with the crimes because his semen was found in, and on the body of Stites, but he alleges they were having an affair.
“Once you look at that and say okay, that could be a possibility, everything that exonerates Rodney Reed falls in line,” Stobbs said.
The project, along with Rodney Reed’s attorneys, filed for clemency with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on October 30 in the wake of a new affidavit sworn by Arthur Snow.
Snow, who is a former member of the Aryan Brotherhood and prison mate of Fennell during his prison stint, claims the officer admitted to killing his fiancée at the Stevenson Unit in Cuero in 2010.
Snow said that during conversations with Fennell, he spoke of his fiancée with “a lot of hatred and resentment” because she was having an affair with a black man before later confessing, “I had to kill my n*****-loving fiancée.”
Innocence Project says that Reed was mainly found guilty because his semen was taken from Stites’ body, but since that time, it has been accepted that Reed and Stites had a consensual relationship. The murder weapon was never tested for DNA and three forensic experts, all of which were critical in convicting Reed have admitted errors in their testimonies, including that the original time of death for Stites is inaccurate.
Reed is scheduled to be executed on November 20, and now celebrities have begun to fight for his release.