The Supreme Court agreed to review the DNA testing request of an inmate on death row who has maintained his innocence.
The Supreme Court agreed to review death row inmate Rodney Reed’s request for DNA testing of evidence gathered in connection to the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites for which Reed was convicted and given a death sentence.
The Hill reports:
Reed, who has maintained his innocence throughout his legal saga, has long sought DNA testing of items recovered from the body and clothing of victim Stacey Stites, as well as items found near the truck of Stites’s then-fiance Jimmy Fennell.
Reed — a Black man who was having an affair with Stites, a 19-year-old white woman — was convicted of murdering Stites in 1998 after the state presented evidence showing that Reed’s DNA matched sperm discovered in Stites’s vaginal tract, according to court filings.
The issue before the Supreme Court is a technical one that deals with when the statute of limitations on Reed’s request for DNA testing begins. Lower courts are divided on whether it begins after a trial court denies the request, or if it should be extended while an appeals process plays out.
The justices’ move Monday to grant review is just the latest development in Reed’s long battle in the courts to secure DNA testing of the crime scene evidence. He first sought the testing in 1999, but the state refused, instead scheduling an execution date.
