Rodney Reed
Rodney Rodell Reed (born December 22, 1967) is a Texas man on death row. He was convicted on May 29, 1998, for the April 1996 abduction, rape, and murder of Stacey Stites, a 19-year-old from Giddings, Texas.
Stites’ body was found in Bastrop, Texas. She had been beaten, sexually assaulted, and strangled with a belt. A key part of the case was DNA found in Stites’ body that matched Reed. Reed initially said he did not know Stites, but later claimed they had a secret, consensual affair.
During the penalty phase, prosecutors argued Reed posed a danger in the future and cited other alleged assaults to support the death sentence. Reed was sentenced to death in 1998 and has remained on death row at the Allan B. Polunsky Unit in Texas.
The case has been controversial. Doubts about Reed’s guilt led to broad calls for a stay of execution in 2019. In November 2019, Texas officials recommended a 120-day reprieve to review new claims of innocence, and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals paused the execution to examine those claims. Since then, Reed’s supporters have pushed for new DNA testing and new evidence to be considered.
In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that Reed could pursue DNA testing related to the case, addressing a question about the statute of limitations for testing evidence. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later denied Reed a new trial in 2023. In 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear his appeal.
Reed’s early life included growing up in Texas with six brothers. He attended Hirschi High School in Wichita Falls, where he played football and was a boxing champion. Stacey Stites’ death drew widespread attention; she was engaged to a Bastrop police officer, Jimmy Fennell Jr., who later served time for other crimes. The case has been the subject of documentaries and TV coverage as it has continued to unfold in courts.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 16:14 (CET).