Texas prosecutors sent Rodney Reed to death row for the 1996 murder of Stacey Stites, whom they argued was strangled with her own leather belt. Yet for over a decade, state officials have fought Mr. Reed’s requests to test that belt for the killer’s DNA. In 2023, the United States Supreme Court ruled that Mr. Reed’s lawsuit seeking the test was timely, and last year it struck down Texas’ attempts to block DNA testing in two other capital cases. However, on March 23, the Court refused to hear Mr. Reed’s most recent appeal after Texas courts again denied testing, this time on new grounds. Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented from the denial of certiorari in a searing opinion that highlighted the racial bias in Mr. Reed’s case, the evidence casting serious doubt on his guilt, and the “inexplicable” refusal of state officials and lower courts to permit DNA testing that could confirm the identity of Ms. Stites’ killer.
Texas law allows capital prisoners to seek DNA testing of evidence during their postconviction appeals, but state prosecutors have consistently fought these efforts with procedural objections — even when, as in Mr. Reed’s case, the prisoner offers to pay for the testing. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals have consistently ruled in favor of the state using narrow interpretations of the law. As a result, though Texas legislators sought to strengthen the legal pathway for prisoners to pursue innocence claims using forensic and technological advancements, state prosecutors have succeeded in blocking that path in virtually every capital case.
