Reed family responds to ‘20/20’ special
Relatives say the TV episode left out some ‘crucial’ details
Following a special episode of the ABC newsmagazine “20/20” featuring death row inmate Rodney Reed that aired Dec. 11, his family said new “crucial” details that could prove Reed’s innocence were brought to light butmany important findings were left out.
“We (the Reed family) did watch the ”20/20” special and I think they did an OK job,” brother Rodrick Reed said. “I feel they left a lot of stuff out thatwas crucial, that the world should know, but overall, I think they got the points out about the medical examiner, about the time of death. They got the key, crucial stuff out, but there’s a whole lot that they missed.”
The two-hour special, titled “Stacey Stites: The Girl in the Pines,” focused exclusively on the 1996 strangulation death of Stites in Bastrop County, the subsequent police investigation, Reed’s 1998 capital murder conviction and his attempts to overturn his guilty finding.
The special featured interviews with a wide-ranging group of people connected to both Stites and Reed as well as the legal case, including Stites’ mother, Carol Stites; Stites’ sisters, Crystal Dobbs and Debra Oliver; Reed’s mother, Sandra Reed; and Lisa Tanner, who prosecuted the case in 1998.
An interview with Rodney Reed from fall 2019, conducted in the Texas death row facility where he is incarcerated in Livingston, was also featured in the special. That interview was conducted just weeks before Reed was scheduled to be executed in November 2019, and prior to the Court of Criminal Appeals issuing a stay five days before his execution date.
While the television special navigated through Stites’ upbringing and personal life, before exploring the police investigation into her death and the trial and conviction of Reed, it also highlighted new evidence introduced by Reed’s defense team from the Innocence Project during recent appeals.
This included expert testimony delivered in 2017 by longtime forensic pathologist Dr. Michael Baden that centers around an earlier time of death for Stites than what the prosecution maintains. That earlier time of death works toward Reed’s defense lawyers’ argument that her fiance, Jimmy Fennell, was a more likely suspect.
Spotlighting Reed’s case
During a Dec. 19 rally at the Bastrop County Courthouse for Reed, his brother, Rodrick, said including this new evidence from recent appeals in the “20/20” special was something the family felt was “key, crucial stuff.”
“That puts her in her apartment, with her fiance, at her time of death,” Rodrick Reed said. “That is crucial.… There’s amountain more, but if you really want to hang onto something with some meat, that’s it.”
Rodrick Reed said his brother’s legal team is starting a YouTube channel to highlight the “mountain” of evidence that wasn’t aired in the “20/20” special that could prove Reed’s innocence, though he didn’t specify what evidence will be presented.
“We’re going to break it down and work with the lawyers from the Innocence Project and lawyers from other parts across the country and family members to put on this YouTube show and tell the truth,” he said.
Roderick Reed also has announced a plan to have at least one “action” each month through May to keep his brother’s case in the public eye until the next appeal hearing, which was recently rescheduled for May 17.
Just as Reed’s family members and supporters intend to continue working to clear his name, Stites’ family members, as well as members of the prosecution, made clear during the “20/20” special they will continue to respond to each appeal.
“We know for sure, 100 percent positive, that Rodney Reed murdered my sister,” Oliver said.
“I have no doubt about his guilt,” Tanner said. “I have tried and tried to figure out somehow that Rodney Reed didn’t kill Stacey Stites. I can’t get there. I’ve also tried to figure out how Jimmy, her fiance, could have done it, and I also can’t get there.”
Reed and his attorneys have long claimed the only evidence linking him to the crime — sperm found inside Stites’ body — was due to a secret affair and not a sexual assault. During the death row interview, Reed described his relationship with Stites as “casual.”
“If I wouldn’t have known her, if I wouldn’t have been associated with her, I wouldn’t be in this situation,” Reed said during the “20/ 20” special.