WASHINGTON D.C., DC — U.S. Rep. Michael McCaul is calling on Gov. Greg Abbott to postpone the execution of death row inmate Rodney Reed.
McCaul is the Republican representative from Texas’ 10th District, which includes all of Austin, Colorado, Rayette, Waller and Washington counties and portions of Bastrop, Harris, Lee and Travis counties.
“A death sentence is final, and given the doubt surrounding his innocence at this time, I believe our state cannot execute Mr. Reed in good conscience without fully reviewing all evidence,” McCaul wrote in a letter to the governor and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on Thursday.
“I strongly urge you to delay execution until further testing and analysis, as well as an evaluation of all witness testimony, is completed,” McCaul said.
The full text of the letter can be found on the representative’s website.
McCaul joins a growing list of leaders nationwide who say new evidence may show Reed did not rape and murder 19-year-old Stacey Stites in Bastrop in 1996.
Prosecutors have stood by their case and the guilty verdict, and numerous Appeals Court decisions have gone in the state’s favor, including a U.S. Supreme Court decision not to review his case.
But Reed has maintained his innocence, and supporters have implicated Stites’ fiancé, Jimmy Fennell, a former police officer.
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In 2007, Fennell pled guilty to kidnapping and improper sexual activity with a person in his custody while he was an officer with the Georgetown Police Department. He served just under 10 years.
In the leadup to Reed’s scheduled execution new witnesses have come forward in Reed’s defense, supporting Reed’s claim he was having an affair with Stites before her murder.
Reed is scheduled to be executed on Nov. 20.
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