Lawyers tell judge new evidence shows innocence of Rodney Reed, man who was sentenced to die for 1996 murder

Lawyers for Rodney Reed, a Black man who maintains he was wrongfully convicted in the 1996 murder of a White woman, are attempting to prove his innocence in a Texas court Monday. Reed had been sentenced to die in the murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites in Bastrop, Texas, but the state's highest court issued a stay days before his scheduled execution in November of 2019. 

As his execution date loomed, the case gained an intense national spotlight. Nearly 3 million people signing a petition urging clemency and high-profile figures such as Kim Kardashian West, Rihanna, Beyonce, Meek Mill and Oprah voiced support for Reed. The Court of Criminal Appeals remanded the case back to the trial court to hash out three issues -- whether the state hid evidence that could have cleared Reed, whether the state presented false testimony, and whether Reed is innocent of the crime.  At a court hearing that began Monday, Reed's defense is expected to introduce evidence and testimony over the course of four to five days in an effort to prove that Reed deserves a new trial. Reed has said he was having an affair with Stites and had consensual sex with her the day before her death, but he has long denied killing her. His defense team points to evidence they say implicates Stites' fiance, a former police officer who later served time in an unrelated kidnapping, in her murder.