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Just 5 days before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection, Texas’ highest criminal appeals court stopped the execution of inmate Rodney Reed. The move comes after an aggressive campaign to include law enforcement, celebrities like Oprah and Rihanna chimed in a letter to Governor Abbott to intervene. Reed’s conviction is being questioned by new evidence in his case, thanks to The Innocence Project.
The stay issued Friday afternoon by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals came hours after the state’s parole board unanimously recommended a 120-day review.
Reed was convicted in the 1995 rape and murder of a 19-year old Stacey Stites in Central Texas. He has maintained his innocence says that Stites’ fiance murder her.
A new trial was ordered based on Reed’s claim of innocence, and that prosecutors suppressed evidence and presented false testimony.
One Click!!! SIGN this petition if you don’t believe the Government should kill an innocent man!!! @GovAbbott https://t.co/L3xrvn7MJO
— Rihanna (@rihanna) November 4, 2019
criminal justice Death Row false evidence Gov. Abbott innocent Rodney Reed stay of execution texas Texas Appeals Court The Innocence Project
