AUSTIN (KXAN) – The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals will hear oral arguments Monday on two issues pursued by death row prisoner Rodney Reed, including Texas’ interpretation of post-conviction DNA testing and Reed’s claims of prosecutorial misconduct and exclusion of vital evidence in his case, according to Reed’s attorneys.
A Bastrop jury sentenced Reed to death in the 1996 rape and murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. She was found strangled and partially clothed beside a rural road north of Bastrop. Reed has maintained his innocence. He is represented by the Innocence Project and has challenged the case numerous times at essentially every level of the state and federal court systems.
DNA testing and exculpatory evidence
Reed’s defense team has been fighting for years to get additional DNA testing of crime scene evidence, such as the belt police said Stites was strangled with.
In that effort, they filed a lawsuit challenging Texas’ post-conviction DNA testing statutes. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in April 2023 the lawsuit was filed in time and remanded the case back for proceedings in the Fifth Circuit. If successful, the lawsuit could pave the way for Reed to access more DNA testing.
The Fifth Circuit will also consider Reed’s claims that the state misrepresented facts, suppressed and failed to produce exculpatory evidence, and used false evidence at trial. Exculpatory evidence is evidence that could help a defendant, and prosecutors are required to disclose it.
The state has fought Reed’s claims and attempts to get a new trial practically every step of the way.
The Fifth Circuit’s ruling could be months away. In the meantime, Reed’s execution remains paused. It is not clear when the state might reset his execution.