Supreme Court Allows Death Row Inmate Rodney Reed to Pursue DNA Testing

The US Supreme Court overturned a lower court's ruling that prevented Rodney Reed from seeking DNA testing of crime scene evidence in his case.
Reed, a Black man, was sentenced to death in 1998 for the murder of Stacey Stites, though he has long maintained his innocence and claims Stites' fiance was the real killer.
Reed sought to test key pieces of evidence from the crime scene, including the belt used to strangle Stites, for DNA.
His lawyers and supporters argue that evidence found since his trial implicates Stites' fiance, a former police officer, as the true killer.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled in 2021 that Reed should have filed his lawsuit within two years of the original denial of DNA testing in 2014.