US Supreme Court rejects petition by Texas death row inmate

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The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday declined to reconsider Rodney Reed’s murder case, dealing a major blow to the death row inmate who had maintained his innocence for more than a quarter of a century in the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites.

Reed, a black man, was convicted in 1998 of killing a 19-year-old white woman in the central Texas city of Bastrop. Reed’s guilt was questioned for years, and his supporters blamed Stites’ fiancé, Jimmy Fennell.

In 2019, Texas’s highest criminal court halted Reed’s execution and sent the case back to the trial court for further review. But a district judge ruled against granting Reed a new trial in 2021, and two years later, the state’s highest criminal court also rejected Reed’s claims of innocence.

Without commenting, the U.S. Supreme Court denied Reed’s request for a writ of certiorari, which would have required the lower court to turn over the case files to the higher court for review.

The ruling does not mean that Reed’s execution will be scheduled immediately. In another appeal last year, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with Reed, clearing the way for his team to conduct DNA tests on evidence that his lawyer said could lead to his exoneration.

Reed’s lawyers were not immediately available for comment.

Stites’ sister said in a statement that Reed is guilty and must take responsibility for the crime.

“It is time to stop re-traumatizing Stacey’s loved ones for the benefit of activists and those seeking to capitalize on this nightmare,” the statement said.

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