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Police Officer's Sexual Violence Calls Murder Conviction Into Question

By TChris

Jimmy Fennell, a police officer in Georgetown, Texas, responded to a domestic disturbance in October 2007. After he arrived at the scene, he handcuffed an intoxicated woman, drove her to a park, asked her to dance for him, and raped her. Fennell entered a guilty plea to charges of kidnapping and sexual assault and was sentenced to 12 years of incarceration.

This was not Fennell's first incident of sexual misconduct. Evidence uncovered by the rape victim during a civil rights lawsuit revealed Fennell's "wide-spread sexual misconduct while serving as an on-duty police officer." Among other allegations was a complaint that Fennell offered to tear up a woman's traffic ticket if she gave him a lap dance.

Fennell was also suspected of brutally raping and murdering his fiancee, Stacey Stites, in 1996. Evidence revealed by the civil rights suit raises the question whether the man who was convicted and sentenced to death for that crime, Rodney Reed, is actually innocent. [more ...]

The defense claims Fennell was jealous when he found out Stites was having an affair -- with Reed, whose DNA was found on the body.

After Reed's trial, the defense learned of a witness who saw Stites and Fennell together on the morning of Stites' murder. Whether the prosecutor knew of the witness' observation before Reed's trial was a disputed fact during Reed's post-conviction proceedings. Neither the judge who considered that post-trial evidence nor the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals believed the evidence warranted a new trial.

Fennell's history of sexual brutality toward women is not, in itself, proof that Fennell killed Stites. Nor is evidence of a "culture of lawlessness" at the Bastrop County Sheriffs Office, which may not have investigated Fennell as a serious suspect. Still, it's reasonable to wonder whether Fennell is the true killer -- and whether Reed's jury would have viewed Fennell's testimony differently had it known of his sexually violent character.

A pending federal proceeding is Reed's last hope for a new trial. He deserves one.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on April 14, 2009 (boomark / email).