attention. i wonder from your perspective how it is through current active our armed forces. duty members. they re really deeply disturbing. these are absolutely repugnant and will be regarded by our military because in no way does it reflect their integrity, obviously the president has the power to pardon or grant discipline, or values. clemency but chief gallagher was acquitted of the most serious charges and was found to be guilty of conduct unbecoming and the navy thought they were dealing with it internally and the president stepped in and said no, we should forget that. we should look beside that. he s done 8 deployments. and i hope my colleagues will there s a lot of good in his join me in condemning that background so i m going to intervene not just on the issue interference by the president of the crime here but all the and also in reaffirming our way down to the issue of his rank, whether or not he would be commitment to strict prosecution reinstated as a s.e.a.l., of war
reverberated through current active military members. it s definitely a concerning case for a lot of folks because it seems as if trump has waved into an area we haven t traditionally seen presidents. obviously presidents have the power to pardon or grant clemency. in this case as you recount chief gallagher was acquitted of the most serious charges, was found to be guilty of conduct unbecoming and the president stepped in and said no we should forget that. we should look beside that, and he s done eight deployments, there s a lot of good in his background, so i m going to intervene not just on the issue of the crime here but all the way down to the issue of his rank, whether or not he d be reinstated as a s.e.a.l., whether or not he could call himself a chief anymore. so the reverberations are just a lot of shock to the commander in chief coming down this far on a case that s already really complicated and really convoluted. andrew, how does the picture
for kidnapping and improper sexual activity after a woman gave testimony saying he forced her to have sex at gunpoint while he was on duty as a police officer. and one of finnell s fellow inmates has now come forward saying he admitted killing stacey stites. new witnesses are coming forward with information that shows jimmy finnell may be the culprit here and that rodney reed did not commit this crime. an innocent man on death row. reporter: reed s legal team has filed an appeal in the u.s. supreme court and made a direct plea to the texas governor for clemency. a legion of supporters including police officers, state lawmakers, death penalty abolitionists and celebrities are also calling for rodney reed s exoneration. so far the governor has found no indication he ll grant clemency, but reed s family says he ll fight to the end. our family is now whole. injustice and corruption and racism has played a huge part in all of this. what was so polarizing about this case?
plea to it texas governor for clemency. a legion of supporters including police officers, state lawmakers, death penalty abolitionists and celebrities are also calling for rodney reed s exoneration. so far the governor has found no indication he ll grant clemency, but reed s family says he ll fight to the end. our family is now whole. what was so polarizing in this case? the racism was a huge polarizing factor. you have a black male accused of sexually assaulting and murdering a woman who s white and also the fiance of a member of law enforcement. he was convicted right out the gate like in the court of public opinion. you know, like, he must have done it. what role does race continue to play in this case? you have texas juks s is one thing but texas justice for a
people, to look to grant clemency. with all of this new evidence it seems really irresponsible. you re not talking about keeping someone in prison for the rest of their life. you re talking about killing someone. that s right. you can t undo that. is there any dna evidence that could claim him innocent? i don t think so. i think what we have in this case is clear evidence that someone else committed the crime. apparently there was an individual who had a relationship with this woman at the time. he was upset that she had a relationship with mr. reed. he had after that point been convicted of another sexual assault, sentenced to ten years in prison. all of that evidence pointed to him as the initial suspect, but that didn t come out during the trial. people have said, look, for him to have a fair trial f mr. reed to actually have the opportunity to show that there s evidence that someone else did this, we need to put a hold on this and allow him to go back to court.