New Evidence Could Clear Death Row Inmate Rodney Reed

In a writ filed with the Court of Criminal Appeals on July 16, attorneys for death row inmate Rodney Reed are arguing that new evidence uncovered about the conduct of victim Stacey Stites' police-officer fiancé bolster Reed's claim of innocence. In court filings, Reed attorney Bryce Benjet tells the court not only that a witness has come forward to confirm that Reed and Stites were having an affair prior to her death, but also that there is additional evidence regarding Jimmy Fennell's apparent proclivity toward sexual violence.

Reed was convicted of the 1996 murder of Stites as she drove to work for an early-morning shift at the Bastrop HEB on April 23, 1996. Stites was strangled with a belt, and her body was dumped alongside a country road just north of town. Although DNA evidence on Stites' body eventually led investigators to Reed, who acknowledged having an affair with Stites, no other evidence tied Reed to the crime. Reed's supporters have long argued that Stites' fiance, Jimmy Fennell Jr., was a far more likely suspect because he was upset about Reed and Stites' relationship. In fact, although the state has claimed that Fennell, then a Giddings Police officer, was initially a suspect in the murder, documents related to the case show that he was never fully pursued: Police never searched the apartment the couple shared, even though it was, arguably, the last place Stites was seen alive, and they never fully processed Fennell's pickup truck, which Stites was allegedly driving the morning she was murdered. They instead returned the truck to Fennell within days of the murder. Fennell turned around and sold the truck.

Fennell, who most recently worked as a Georgetown Police officer, was indicted last year on charges including aggravated sexual assault and kidnapping related to his raping a woman he had taken into custody. Last month he agreed to plead guilty to two charges in exchange for two years in a state jail facility, but that plea deal was denied by Williamson Co. District Judge Burt Carnes, and Fennell will now go to trial in September. In addition, Reed attorney Benjet writes that information obtained from the Travis Co. Sheriff's Office demonstrates that Fennell was accused of trying to force a woman to dance for him naked back in 2004 after he pulled her over near Round Rock for having a "crooked license plate." When Fennell found out the woman was driving with an expired registration, he asked her what she "wanted to do about that," suggesting she drive to the parking lot of Inner Space Cavern, disrobe, and give him a "lap dance." She apparently avoided her fate by mentioning that she was friendly with the wife of the Williamson Co. sheriff. The woman immediately reported the incident to TCSO, but Georgetown Police Department officials apparently did not pursue the complaint.

The latest court filing also notes that Fennell has demonstrated a disturbing propensity for sexual violence on his personal MySpace page where he goes by the name "Point Man." The Web page features photos of Fennell dressed in a police SWAT-style uniform, often holding a weapon – including one photo where he is armed with an assault rifle. Further, Fennell has posted pictures of women in bondage positions and at least one picture that shows a person dressed as a police officer holding a gun to a woman's head while she gives him oral sex. Notably, another picture shows a woman from behind bending over the back of a car – the same position in which Fennell's rape victim reported being assaulted last fall.

"These public documents provide a rough outline of crimes of sexual violence committed or attempted by Mr. Fennell," Benjet argues in the court filing. "Fennell's character, credibility and propensity for violence have been at the center of Mr. Reed's innocence claims," and Reed should be afforded a new trial, Benjet continues. "This new information that Mr. Fennell used his badge and gun to kidnap and rape a woman in his custody, as well as his other sexual misconduct, is powerful evidence that confirms the other evidence relating to Mr. Fennell's jealous character, motive, and propensity for violence – especially against women," reads the court filing. "The denial of guilt found in Mr. Fennell's ... testimony" at Reed's 1998 trial "must be reconsidered in light of all of the evidence now known."

Fennell's criminal attorney, Bob Phillips, told the Austin American-Statesman that Benjet is "becoming desperate" and that making such allegations public "has the potential to taint any jury pool" in Fennell's sex assault case, "whether the allegations are true, false, reckless or utterly unfounded."