Please join the family of Rodney Reed and supporters at Rosa Parks Plaza in downtown Dallas on Friday, September 27 to say “HELL NO TO THE SCHEDULED EXECUTION OF RODNEY REED!”. Your voice may help to save an innocent man’s life. The Innocence Project has been representing Mr. Reed since 2012 and is currently handling his appeal.

Place
Rosa Parks Plaza
901 Elm Street
Dallas, TX 75202

Date & Time
Friday, September 27
4:00-6:00 pm
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On November 20, the State of Texas plans to execute an innocent black man Rodney Reed for a murder he did not commit. In a police investigation and criminal trial riddled with crucial errors and irregularities, an all-white jury convicted Mr. Reed of murdering a young white woman named Stacey Stites. Here are important facts about the case including the irregularities:

● The courts have repeatedly denied Mr. Reed DNA testing of critical evidence found at the murder scene, including the belt used to strangle the victim to death.
● Mr. Reed was convicted based on forensic testimony that has been now been recanted by the trial medical examiner as well as the other scientists and agencies that offered the evidence on behalf of the State.
● In fact, three renowned leading forensic pathologists, including Dr. Michael Baden, have now concluded that it would be "medically and scientifically impossible" for Mr. Reed to have murdered Ms. Stites. These forensic experts have concluded it is "medically impossible" for Stites to have been killed at the time the state says she died. This alone exonerates Rodney Reed.
● This new forensic evidence (which the State has not contradicted) indicates that Ms. Stites was murdered at a time that her fiance, local police officer Jimmy Fennell, testified that he was alone with Ms. Stites in their apartment.
● Former officer Fennell, who was the initial person of interest in the crime, failed two polygraph tests regarding his involvement in the crime before invoking the 5th Amendment.
● Several family members of Ms. Stites have come forward stating they believe that Rodney is innocent, that he has not received the full and complete due process of the judicial system., and that Jimmy Fennell got away with murdering their loved one. One cousin stated in an affidavit that he saw Rodney and Stacey hanging together at a Dairy Queen in either October or November of 1995.
● Fennell was an early suspect in the police investigation into Ms. Stites' murder.
● Fennell just recently completed a ten-year prison sentence after he plead guilty to felony charges arising out of the kidnapping and sexual assault of a woman he encountered while on patrol as a Georgetown, Texas police officer.
● Fennell’s truck (which Ms. Stites’ body was dumped out of) was released to and promptly sold by Fennell, meaning a third party (such as Mr. Reed’s defense) could never confirm its contents or test any DNA. After quickly gathering several items from Fennell’s truck, the police returned the truck to Fennell. He sold it almost immediately. None of the items gathered from the truck were ever DNA tested, including a cigarette lighter that the killer probably handled, as the body of Ms. Stites, a non-smoker, bore a fresh cigarette burn.
● Law enforcement placed plastic bags over the Ms. Stites’ hands to capture and preserve any fingernail scrapings, and a condom was also collected. Again, none of these items were subjected to DNA testing.
● Although Fennell (a local police officer), was the leading suspect for many months, the police inexplicably failed to search the couple’s apartment (the last place Stites was seen alive).
● Witness testimony and DNA evidence collected at the site where Ms. Stites’ body was found point to the involvement of Fennell’s known associates David Hall (a Giddings police officer) and Ed Salmela (a Bastrop police officer).
● Fennell gave conflicting accounts of where he was on the night Ms. Stites was murdered. Fennell claimed to be home with Ms. Stites, but during a CNN interview, his close friend Curtis Davis (a former Bastrop Sheriff’s Office Deputy) claimed that Fennell told him that he had been out drinking until the late evening the night Ms. Stites was murdered.
● Following the conviction, an appellate court refused to require a new trial when it was learned following the trial that the prosecutor had withheld important evidence at trial.
There was no physical evidence linking Mr. Reed to the murder scene.