BASTROP The Rodney Reed hearing ended Thursday with prosecutors presenting witnesses in an effort to prove Reed had a history of violence toward women, including one who said he raped her in 1995.
A defense attorney said the judge should not consider the rape testimony or the testimony of another woman who testified Thursday that Reed assaulted her in 1996, because Reed had not faced trial in either charge.
Reed was convicted of capital murder in Stacey Stites strangulation death in 1998 and received the death penalty. Stites body was found by the side of a rural road in Bastrop County on April 23, 1996, with Reed s sperm in her. Before she died, Stites had planned to marry her fiancé, Jimmy Fennell, then a Giddings police officer.
State has family of Stites and Fennell take the stand in Reed hearing
State has family of Stites and Fennell take the stand in Reed hearing
As Rodney Reed s appeal hearing draws to a close, the state works to change the negative character image of Jimmy Fennell after last week s testimony.
BASTROP, Texas - The state started the morning with a couple of law enforcement witnesses, trying to corroborate and discredit some testimony from fellow inmates of Jimmy Fennell.
As the appeal draws closer to a close, people from all over are attending the proceedings. I have no doubt Rodney Reed is innocent. They should be about justice rather than covering it up, said O.T. Brandley, who came to watch the proceedings.
Rodney Reed s defense brings forth more witnesses to make their case
Rodney Reed s defense brings forth more witnesses to make their case
The defense calls on four more witnesses to speak on Reed s and Stite s relationship and Stite s fiancé, Jimmy Fennel, character.
BASTROP, Texas - The defense started the morning, calling witnesses that could speak to Jimmy Fennell, Stacey Stites fiance s character.
One of them was Arthur Snow, a former member of the Aryan brotherhood and inmate who says his ex-wife, a witness for the state, threatened him not to testify. Snow testified that Fennell confessed to killing Stites while incarcerated.