Friday, July 23, 2021

Rodney Reed: Texas: Innocence Project's assessment of the first week of the two-week evidence hearing..."This week, Innocence Project lawyers gave opening statements and presented witnesses, who testified to seeing Rodney and Stacey together and that they did have a relationship. Multiple witnesses also testified that Jimmy Fennell knew about their affair, and that he had used racial slurs when referring to Rodney. One witness said Jimmy told him that he would kill Stacey if he ever found out she was cheating on him with a Black man. Dr. Andrew Baker, a medical examiner, also took the stand and gave crucial testimony saying that the State presented false evidence about Stacey’s death at the original trial, testimony that served to exclude Jimmy as the person who killed her."


RELEASE: "Rodney Reed's first few days back in court," published by The Innocence Project on July 23, 2021.

GIST: "Rodney Reed has been on death row in Texas for 23 years for a crime he’s always said he didn’t commit — the murder of Stacey Stites, a woman whom he was secretly seeing at the time of her death.

In 1998, Rodney, a Black man, was convicted of murdering Stacey, a white woman, by an all-white jury. Though the prime suspect in the case initially was her fiancé, local police officer Jimmy Fennell, police shifted all of their attention to Rodney after DNA recovered from Stacey matched him.

This week, Rodney Reed has been back in court in Texas trying to prove his innocence.

At the time of his original trial, Rodney said that he and Stacey were having a consensual relationship, which explains the presence of his DNA. But they had to hide their relationship because Stacey was engaged and Rodney is Black, while Stacey was white. The prosecution claimed there was no evidence of their connection to one another.

This week, Innocence Project lawyers gave opening statements and presented witnesses, who testified to seeing Rodney and Stacey together and that they did have a relationship. Multiple witnesses also testified that Jimmy Fennell knew about their affair, and that he had used racial slurs when referring to Rodney. One witness said Jimmy told him that he would kill Stacey if he ever found out she was cheating on him with a Black man.

Dr. Andrew Baker, a medical examiner, also took the stand and gave crucial testimony saying that the State presented false evidence about Stacey’s death at the original trial, testimony that served to exclude Jimmy as the person who killed her.

All of this further supports Rodney’s innocence. His hearing will continue next week, and we’re not going to stop fighting until he gets the justice he deserves.

The entire release can be read at:

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgzGkZZknWBtZSCKvZGJPNlWsVzlb

PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic"  section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com.  Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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FINAL WORD:  (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases):  "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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FINAL, FINAL WORD: "Since its inception, the Innocence Project has pushed the criminal legal system to confront and correct the laws and policies that cause and contribute to wrongful convictions.   They never shied away from the hard cases — the ones involving eyewitness identifications, confessions, and bite marks. Instead, in the course of presenting scientific evidence of innocence, they’ve exposed the unreliability of evidence that was, for centuries, deemed untouchable." So true!
Christina Swarns: Executive Director: The Innocence Project;