Reed appeal denied,
Death row inmate wanted DNA testing on evidence in murder.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed, who has been trying without success to have crime-scene evidence tested for DNA, saying the results could prove his innocence.
The decision, delivered without comment from the court, ended Reed’s bid to have the evidence tested under a state DNA law but opened another avenue to pursue in the coming weeks — a federal lawsuit arguing that blocking access to the tests violates the Bastrop man’s civil rights, his lawyer said Monday.
“Rodney Reed has asked for DNA testing of crime scene evidence that would unquestionably have been tested if the murder were investigated today,” said Bryce Benjet, Reed’s lead lawyer.
Prosecutors have fought to deny Reed access to the evidence for about four years, arguing that testing would not be helpful in solving the 1996 Bastrop-area murder of Stacey Stites because the items had been contaminated by repeated handling during and after Reed’s trial.
In addition, several items were stored in the same box but not packaged separately, allowing potential DNA to mingle, prosecutors said.
“There is nothing unconstitutional in requiring evidence integrity,” they told the Supreme Court.
Bastrop County District Attorney Bryan Goertz did not return calls seeking comment Monday.
Reed’s lawyers claim he is innocent and want to test crime scene evidence that was probably touched by the killer, including Stites’ clothing and two pieces of the belt used to strangle her, to determine if modern testing methods can reveal skin cells and other DNA-bearing evidence.