reporter: in 1996, 19-year-old stacy stites was found dead on the side of a road in bastrop, texas. she was bruised and strangled with a belt. she was raped and murdered just after 3:00 in the morning. on her way to work at a grocery store. for months, the prime suspect was her fiancee, a police officer named jimmy finnell until dna pointed to another man she knew. tests confirmed rodney reed s seemen was found inside stites. a jury convicted him and he was sent to death row. it almost reads like a book. hopefully we don t execute the wrong man for this murder. reporter: his attorney said evidence points to jimmy fennell. reed talked about this in an
interview. she said that if jimmy found out we were together that he would kill me. i just took it as a figure of speech. i didn t take it literally. that is clear motive for him to have killed stacy and ultimately having rodney reed take the fall for the murder. reporter: it has gathered celebrity attention. kim kardashian and others are taking action. reed s lawyer said the murder investigation is full of holes. they say the time of death is inaccurate and police never searched the apartment where fennell and stites lived together. the bush to exonerate reed is a circus that was rejected by appeals courts. he is a garden variety sociopath and convinced his lawyers and lots of other people that he s just a poor, unfairly
who was accused of sexual assault in 1995. authorities involved in the stacy stites murder investigation run reed s dna against the sample found inside stites body. it s a match. reed s mother sandra told me that she answered the door when the sheriff first came looking for her son. i asked can you tell me what this is for? and they, this young gentleman said, and looked at me teary eyed, and he said no, i can t. that was shocking. and then i said oh my god, is it that bad? and he looked at me and he just shook his head. well rodney wasn t there. later that day, rodney reed turns himself into police for what he thinks is a drug charge.