New evidence presented in Texas death row inmate’s hearing

BASTROP, Texas (AP) — An attorney for a Texas death row inmate has told a judge that new evidence suggests the 19-year-old woman his client was convicted of killing may instead have been strangled by her jealous boyfriend. Rodney Reed was convicted in the 1996 rape and murder of Stacy Stites in Bastrop, 30 miles southeast of Austin. The Austin American-Statesman reports that Reed’s attorney argued Monday that new witnesses and forensic evidence support theories that Stites and Reed were having an affair and that Stites could have been killed by her fiancé, former police officer Jimmy Fennell. Prosecutors say the new evidence doesn’t change the facts that led to Reed’s conviction. Fennell has denied any involvement in Stites’ killing.