Court rejects death row inmate’s latest appeal
By Chuck Lindell | Wednesday, July 1, 2009, 11:07 AM
The state’s highest criminal court has again rejected death row
inmate Rodney Reed’s claims that he did not kill Stacey Stites, a 19-
year-old who was raped and strangled in Bastrop County in 1996.
Reed’s latest appeal built on allegations — contained in earlier
court petitions — that Stites was murdered by her then-fiance, Jimmy
Fennell, a former police officer who was later sentenced to 10 years
in prison for kidnapping and improper sexual activity with a woman in
his custody.
But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled today that the latest
allegations against Fennell did not change the case against Reed.
“The allegations of Fennell’s misconduct and domestic violence do not
exonerate (Reed),” the court ruled in an unanimous, unsigned opinion.
“The totality of the evidence before us still supports a guilty
verdict.”
Reed’s latest appeal included information compiled by Georgetown
police during their investigation into a 2007 incident when Fennell
responded to a domestic disturbance call, drove the woman to a
secluded area and forced her to have sex with him.
According to the new allegations in Reed’s appeal, Fennell also
forced a woman he met during a traffic stop in July 2007 to have sex
with him, abused his now ex-wife and stalked a woman in Giddings in
1997.
Reed’s lawyers argued that the new information, coupled with earlier
allegations of Fennell’s misconduct, points to Fennell as Stites’
killer. They also claim no jury would have convicted Reed had it
known about Fennell’s abusive history with women.
But the appeals court rejected Reed’s claims, raised in his fifth
petition for a writ of habeas corpus since his May 1998 conviction.
Reed’s case is now expected to move into the federal court system for
his next — and final — round of appeals before execution.
http://www.statesman.com/blogs/content/shared-gen/blogs/austin/courts/entries/2009/07/01/court_rejects_reeds_latest_app.html?cxntfid=blogs_austin_legal