As we finished watching "When They See Us," news of Rodney Reed, a Texas man who was charged with the murder of Stacey Stites in 1996, is said to be executed this month for a crime he did not commit. He has been on death row, for more than 21 years the assault, rape, and strangulation of Stacey Stites. He and Stites had a consensual sexual relationship but were not in a relationship when she was murdered, and many people were quick to point fingers to Reed because of his skin color, which led me to see the similarities between this and the Central Park 5.
The Central Park 5 were mainly suspects in the first place because they were near the crime scene, wrong place wrong time, and because, most obvious, they are black. Rodney Reed was found guilty for the murdering of a white woman from an all-white jury, where a huge bias formed making this case seem like it was racially charged. Recently a confession of Jimmy Fennell came up stating that he was the one who killed his then-fiancee, Stacey Stites. This confession made a lot of people wonder why Rodney was still on death row when a confession was made causing him to be innocent.
When his execution date was announced, a lot of people were furious to see that it is scheduled to be on the 20th of this month. There have been petitions going on where people are wanting his execution to be stopped. I believe that what happened to Rodney Reed is unjust because the jury did cause an innocent man to go on death row with very little to no evidence. Unfortunately, this is how the American justice system does work sometimes and innocent people are put in jail for crimes they never committed.
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The articles also suggest that the collection and testimony on the evidence was flawed. Just as with the case of OJ Simpson, the justice system failed because of improperly handled evidence and the inconsistent testimony of the evidence collectors. In OJ's case, this was from evidence being moved around for no apparent reason and the man in charge of collecting evidence failing to make sure that his understudy collected blood properly. In Reed's case, the DNA evidence was not even considered. Forensic experts admitted to errors in their testimony and it was later proven by renowned pathologists that Reed could not possibly be responsible. Had they done their job properly the first time, Reed's unjust punishment might have been avoided. While the justice system might not be able to fully prevent the incarceration of innocent people, improving other aspects of the process could immensely improve the way the justice system performs.
ReplyDeleteThis case also reminds me of the Garrett Phillips case. Just how people were quick to point fingers at Rodney Reed, many were quick to assume Nick Hillary was guilty of killing Garret. While Nick was able to win the case against him, Rodney was not. I think this shows that the criminal justice system is capable of bringing justice but that it also depends on the jurors. Because the jury in Reed's case was all-white, the fact that Reed was a man of color could have influenced their decision.
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