'People Magazine Investigates': Is Rodney Reed Innocent? Airs Monday at 10 ET/9 CT on Investigation Discovery and streams on discovery+.
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STORY: 'People Magazine Investigates': Questions continue to swirl around the 1996 murder of Texan woman," published by 'People Magazine' on May 21, 2021.
SUB-HEADING: "Monday's 'People Magazine Investigates' episode explores the strangulation death of 19-year-old Stacey Stites and the conviction of Rodney Reed who has maintained his innocence since his conviction."
GIST: "On April 23, 1996, the body of a woman was found hidden in the bushes along a rural road in Bastrop, Texas. The investigation revealed she had been beaten, raped and strangled.
Stacey Stites, 19, had been preparing to marry her fiance, Jimmy Fennell, a local police officer, when her body was discovered.
Prosecutors quickly turned their attention to Rodney Reed after his DNA was recovered from Stites' body, according to the New York Times.
After first denying any involvement, Reed admitted to having an affair with Stites, which is discussed on Monday night's episode of People Magazine Investigates: Is Rodney Reed Innocent?, airing at 10 ET/9 CT on Investigation Discovery and streaming on discovery+.\
Despite Reed's claims that he was in a consensual relationship with Stites, a Texas jury convicted Reed of capital murder in 1998 and sentenced him to Death Row, where he maintained his innocence.
On Nov. 20, 2019, Reed was scheduled to be executed when the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended that Texas Gov. Greg Abbott grant Reed a 120-day reprieve, according to the NYT. Later, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals blocked Reed's execution and his execution is now suspended indefinitely.
Kim Kardashian was one of the many celebrity voices to stand up for Reed after his attorneys with the Innocence Project said they have new eyewitness evidence to be presented that would help prove his innocence. Experts that were called in 1998 when he was convicted of the 1996 murder of Stacy Stites have also recanted their testimony.
"Words cannot describe the relief and hope that swept over the room in that moment," Kardashian tweeted at the time of Reed's stay. "That hope had been building over the last few weeks around Rodney's case. We have seen Democrats and Republicans come together. We have seen grassroots activists and lawmakers link arms."
Meanwhile, Reed's appeal hearing has been rescheduled for July 19, according to court records obtained by the Austin America-Statesman.
According to the NYT, at least three people have come forward with new testimony regarding Stites's fiancé, who has denied killing Stites. It was possible that Reed's defense team would subpoena Fennell."
The entire story can be read at:
