Posted on 04/10/2017 5:35:10 PM PDT by Ennis85
Texas death-row inmate Rodney Reed - a black American man convicted in a racially charged trial - has lived under the threat of execution for two decades.
At one point, in March 2015, Reed was set to be executed the day after Al Jazeera spoke to him from behind the plexiglass at a prison in Livingston, Texas.
But the execution was stayed, pending a review into his case. In 2014, Reed's lawyers had launched a bid to reopen an investigation into DNA collected at the crime scene that the lawyers said would exonerate him.
Texas's judicial authorities had long ignored calls to review what Reed's lawyers and forensic experts believe is overwhelming evidence that his conviction was wrongful.
"Basically everything that is wrong with the American capital punishment system happened in Mr Reed's case," Bryce Benjet, Reed's lawyer, told Al Jazeera for this article.
Reed, now 49, was convicted of the 1996 abduction, rape and murder of Stacey Stites, a 19-year-old white woman.
Much of Reed's case hinges on whether Reed had consensual sexual relations with the victim, something the jury in his initial trial considered unthinkable, says Benjet, because of the racial dynamics in that court and more broadly in Texas during the 1990s.
The forensic scientist who believed the DNA was the lynchpin in Reed's conviction has since reversed his opinion, documents seen by Al Jazeera show; he now believes, based on his own review with more up-to-date technology, that DNA found on the victim was from a consensual encounter well before her death.
"Mr Reed's attorneys [in his initial trial in 1997] were rushed to trial before even a minimal investigation could be completed. And the lingering problems with race in our communities cannot be avoided where Mr Reed, a young African-American man, was dating a white
(Excerpt) Read more at aljazeera.com ...
Blah, blah, blah
Just GTHO if you don’t like it here
There’s something to be said for the old ways: The Hanging Tree in Goliad, TX
No way would this POS last 2 days, much less 20 years.
This murderer should have been executed 20 years ago.
Lets take this from another angle.
Why are so many blacks murdering people? What the hell is wrong with the blacks they are creating so many murderers?
Al Jazeera is carrying water for their own.
More gold from al Braziera.
Chicago mind-set....
I’ve met three people in Texas that were wrongfully convicted of murder, two of them were on Death Row.
If you are going to execute a man, you need to be damn sure you have the right guy, and in this case, it may not be the right guy.
Did anyone actually read the article?
“Stites’s [the dead woman] fiancé, Jimmy Fennell - a white police officer - was a suspect in her death until Reed’s conviction, according to Benjet and local news reports. Fennell is currently serving a prison sentence for abducting and raping a woman while on duty.”
Anyone heard of Michael Morton? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Morton_%28criminal_justice%29
He’s a Texas man wrongfully convicted of murdering his wife. He served almost 25 years in Texas prisons before DNA evidence exonerated him. And it took years to get the justice system to even let the DNA evidence be tested. YEARS.
He’s a white man. By the way, if you ever run across the documentary about him, please watch it, he’s a fascinating man with an amazing peacefulness about him. Truly worth your time.
Anyway, I’ve been in Texas courtrooms and seen black boys get up in front of the judge and be handed horrible sentences for petty offenses and the white boys were slapped on the wrist and sent on their way. It was VERY obvious. And sickening.
I don’t see anything in the story that explicitly exonerates the inmate. Do they have proof he didn’t do it or not?
This is one of the things that always pisses me off. Supposedly juries must decide "beyond a reasonable doubt", but when in fact it is demonstrably provable that someone didn't do it, how in h*ll do they find them guilty? Obviously there is something seriously wrong with their methodology when people who in fact did not commit the crime are somehow found guilty of it "beyond a reasonable doubt."
You do understand peoples backgrounds, prior criminal records etc, are all taken into account prior to sentencing right?
re: “I’ve been in Texas courtrooms” HEH HEH, I did HALF A NICKEL, ADOC, and believe ME, They were ALL innocent... heh heh
A toxic ‘culture’ completely lacking in personal responsibility would be my guess. When they are brought up to blame everyone else around them for their failures in life (especially ‘whitey’), envy, sloth, and greed prompts them to steal what they covet or desire. I would guess it is not a far step to cross the line to murder for those same things. Just my $0.02 worth.
Exactly right. You want to see total repudiation of a liberal mantra that homes without dads are normal and fine and just as good as those with dads, the last 50 years of the black community totally destroys that claim.
Biological dads. Not boyfriends.
A news channel coming from a part of the world where homosexuals and non-Muslims are put to death on a regular basis is lecturing us about the evils of capital punishment?
The creeping sickness of fatherless homes has been spreading for the last 30+years in white households. What happened a couple of weeks ago in Broken Bow, OK is testament to the lasting impact the continued destruction of the traditional family structure has on society as a whole. This is no accident. This destruction is by design.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.