Good. Just before nine o'clock last night, the jury returned guilty verdicts against all three defendants.
It was absolute shambles, to tell you the truth, just absolutely.
Really pallous blood on his clothing the day after the alleged at top.
A shallow mud bank, and it fits Roy River. Basically. I think most of the people are used to me are good people. I think a really important question we need to ask is how many Indigenous prisoners in Australia are innocent.
This is Curtain, a podcast where we pulled back the blinds to shine a light on the darkest parts of our justice system and ask who are the victims. I'm Amy Maguire and.
I'm Martin Hodgson, a senior advocate for the Foreign Prisoner Support Service. And a warning, this series contains the names of deceased peoples and has distressing content that might upset some listeners.
Welcome back to Curtain the podcast. Now today we're going to take you again overseas to a case that's close to both of our hearts. The reason it's so important for me is because, as we've said previously on this show, it's the case that led me to asking Martin Hodgson
to investigate Kevin Henry's case. It's the case of Rodney Reid, who is an African American man who was on death row for the murder of a white woman in Belstrop, Texas, back in the nineties, and when we first spoke about it, there are a lot of troubling similarities with Kevin Henry's case, but also a lot of key differences. And one of the key differences currently is that Rodney Reid is still
on death row. Granted he's been given a stay of execution and in definite stay of execution, but his family and his legal team are still fighting for him to be free. We know that Kevin Henry is currently out on parole and we're still fighting that exoneration, but that to me stands as one of the key differences is that you know Rodney Reed. There is still this ongoing fight for Rodney Reed to be free, to be out in his community with his family. But there has been
some updates in the case now. Martin has been working on Rodney's case for over a decade and he's been following these proceedings very closely. In fact, he's still involved with the legal team Martin, can I first ask you about the context behind the recent hearing, what led to this hearing and what does the hearing mean for Rodney Reid and his family in the case.
Yeah, So, over the last two weeks there's been an evidentiary hearing in Texas and basically after his execution was stayed, this new evidentiary hearing was required to assess the new evidence and to get new evidence from forensic experts that can shine a light on new forensic methods and things
like that. There's also new witnesses have come forward and basically the judge, once this proceedings are finished, will then have some time to think about it and he can come back and either say Rodney's guilty and to continue with the execution. He can order a retrial, or he could exonerate Rodney and set him free. So the stakes really couldn't be any higher.
What has actually brought us to this point? Briefly, Martin, I mean, how long has this taken to get a new hearing for Rodney.
Well, it's probably over a decade to get to this point of being able to present this new evidence to a court. So as people are probably aware, Stacey Stitz was found murdered on the side of the road in Texas. She was nineteen at the time. Her fiance was the primary suspect, A police officer named Jimmy Fanell and his neighbor and friends in law enforcement investigated the case and never got anywhere really with it, and then after about
six months they turned their attention to Rodney. Now, we've always said that there was no evidence linking Rodney to
the crime. In fact, that there was considerable evidence pointing to Jimmy Fanel, the police officer fiance, and we've always just wanted to get this evidence into court and also to show that the prosecution withheld information at the initial trial, that the forensic evidence presented was wrong at the initial trial, and that there was witnesses who were scared or didn't come forward at the time because the prosecution either didn't let the defense know they even existed or those people
were threatened. So that's how it's taken over a decade to get to this point. And now we feel like over the last two weeks we've given it a really good crack at presenting that new evidence.
And so what was that new evidence? Can you take us through some of the details of what was hurt in court.
Yeah.
So one of the key points is at what time Stacy died. We've always argued that she was murdered at home sometime after dinner by her fiance, Jimmy Fanel, and the state has always said that she was killed the following morning. If she was killed the following morning, they say, then Rodney could have done it when she was on her way to work. We say, Jimmy did it, as
I say, just after dinner. So to the first witnesses at this new evidentiary hearing were doctor Andrew Baker, who is the Minnesota's chief forensic pathologist, and he testified in the successful prosecution of the police officer who killed George Floyd, and basically he found endless errors in the original forensic evidence and basically disputed all of that evidence. He also pointed out to the fact that Stacey had clearly been murdered earlier on in the night, which is what we've
always said. And one important factor too, was that the prosecution has always claimed that Rodney had raped Stacy, and what doctor Baker found was that there was no evidence whatsoever of a sexual assault. And that's really important because
without that there's again there's nothing linking Rodney. But this was something that, as we've spoken about on this podcast, when they can't get a black man guilty, it's really easy to throw this accusation of rape up, as happened to Kevin Henry, and now, as in Kevin's case, same with Rodney. The new forensic evidence is that there never
was a rape. And I think it's a horrific thing the police do to the family of the victim, telling them that something shocking like that occurred when they know they didn't know it didn't. The second witness was the Kentucky medical examiner and forensic pathologist, doctor Gregory Davis. He not only agreed with doctor Baker, but brought a letter with him to court of fourteen other of the nation's
leading medical examiners. They the head examiners from different states, who all agreed that literally the forensic evidence at the first trial made no sense. It was basically deliberately botched to point to Rodney when there was no evidence. And so he went through a litany of forensic evidence about dating the bruises on Stacy's body, looking at issues of lividity and rigormortis discoloration of the body, and also the way that Stacy might have been murdered. Now we say
it's never been proven conclusively. The state says she may have been that she was strangled by Rodney Reid. We say that's not correct. And what doctor Davis said was that there is also a possibility that she was drowned and that that could have taken place in the bathtub inside her home with Jimmy Fanell. And as everyone knows who's listened to the podcast, their house was never searched or examined. And what he showed was that one point
two liters of fluid was in Stacy's left lung. Now how that got there is anyone's guess, but again it points to Jimmy and away from from Rodney.
It's interesting you brought up Jimmy Fanella, which who was Stacey Stite's fiance at the time, and he was a lot older than her as well, and she was only nineteen and she tragically lost her life. He actually, for the first time was brought to the stand, wasn't he How was it when he gave evidence or what what was his testimony like?
Yeah, it was quite unusual because generally when someone who is being pointed at as a new suspect as far as the state might be concerned, and the person we've always believed and known committed the murder, generally they will plead the Fifth Amendment and they won't answer questions. And we were under the assumption and had been told that's what would happen. But in fact, Jimmy answered all the
questions that Rodney's legal team put to him. And there was nothing interesting about Jimmy's statements to the court other than that every other witness who had given evidence at the hearing was lying. And whenever he was questioned about this new forensic evidence, he said that the forensic pathologists were lying. Questioned about eyewitnesses, he said they were lying. Other police officers who gave evidence against him at this
new forensic hearing, he said, were lying. Former cellmates of his. Because, as people will be aware, Jimmy Fanell, ten years after Stacy died, was still a serving police officer when he kidnapped a woman who he'd pulled over and raped her, and he was sentenced to ten years in prison, and he's only just been released now. One of the witnesses
was one of his former inmates. And what's quite interesting about this witness is that he was a member of the Aryan Brotherhood, the most well known white supremacist prison gang, and Jimmy had sought their protection while he was in prison.
And this witness, Arthur Snow Junior, said was that Jimmy confessed to him while he was inside and that he said that that basically he said that Jimmy had told him that and I quote, you wouldn't believe how easily a belt would break strangling an N word loving whore. That's what Jimmy said to mister Snow Now. The important thing about that is that Jimmy had been overheard to say this about using the N word and using those
sort of names to describe Stacy. But the belt did break when he strangled Stacy, and that was something that's not really that well known unless you've really studied the evidence. And this witness, Arthur Snow, was in prison when the murder happened, so he had no way of knowing it.
There was also another former inmate who was friends with Jimmy inside who said basically the same thing, that not only had he killed his fiance, but that Jimmy had got away with it, and that there was a man on death row, and he'd said to Michael Bordellen that I took care of her and that damn n word is doing the time for it. And Bordellan even says that when he Jimmy told him that he simulated strangulation.
And one thing that's really important to note, as I say, the belt that was used to strangle Stacey did in fact break and the other half of that belt was found next to Jimmy Fanell's car, and that vehicle was also where Stacy's body was believed to have been in just before her body was dumped, and only Jimmy's, Jimmy Fanell's DNA and Stacy's d was in that vehicle. So you have the murder weapon, Jimmy Fanell's DNA, Stacy's DNA, and these confessions inside that Jimmy had killed her in
this way. And then we had a litany of witnesses who were at Stacy's funeral who were friends of hers, co workers, friends of the family, one being a Lee County Deputy, Lee Clampet. And so this is a former police officer with no reason to lie, and he says at the funeral, Jimmy told him that Stacy and I quote,
she got what she deserved. And this was backed up by a large number of witnesses, including Richard Scoggins who worked with Stacy, and Faranell had said to him that and again, this is a horrible thing that he said, but again this was at the fun funeral, that she deserved it, and that she was a lying, fucking bitch.
And this is a guy supposedly at the funeral of his fiance who's died just before they are supposed to get married, and this is what he's saying to everyone, from his own friends, fellow police officers, her friends, and co workers. Yeah, there was just a litany of those witnesses, and.
Martin, I think you haven't mentioned it on this podcast. We do. I know you've mentioned it before. But there was a reason he was saying those things about Stacy, and it's a reason that some people have said is the reason Rodney is guilty. Is that Rodney was having an affair with stacy'starts, which is something he's always said. And I know that there were other witnesses, weren't They have friends who had confirmed that who previously hadn't been listened to.
Yeah, that's right, and they were some of the key new witnesses that we say the prosecution withheld from the defense at the original trial, which is that Rodney admits that he and Stacy were having an affair, and a number of her good friends and co workers confirmed that and took the stand to confirm that, and that they, you know, they'd seen them together, that Rodney had been to her work, that they'd seen her with Rodney at
an ice cream store, and things like that. So there was all this evidence really that not only was Jimmy prior to Rodney ever having the affair with Stacy, he was already a very jealous, abusive guy, but then once and look, you know, there's no doubt he joined the Aryan brotherhood in prison, so he's clearly a racist that you know, the fact that his fiance was having an affair with a black man sent him off the edge.
And in this case, one of the most startling new witnesses was a man named William Sappington, and he his son and wife attend church with one of the highest
law officers in the area, are Ted Williams. And what makes William very interesting is that he was one of Jimmy Fanell and Stacy Stitz's neighbors, and he approached his friend at church, Ted Williams, and told him that he, his son and his wife had heard loud arguing between Jimmy and Stacy, that they'd heard screaming, that they'd heard things like her being thrown to the ground having their hair pulled. They said that they'd always observed him to
be very jealous, very controlling, and threatening. Stacy had even mentioned to them that she didn't think that the wedding would go ahead. They'd observed what would amount to considerable domestic violence by Jimmy Fanell. And these are the next door neighbors. And they, as I say, they went to church with this wems who was one of the highest law officers in the area. They taught his children at Sunday School. They described themselves as very God fearing people.
And we have no reason to believe they would possibly make this up or why. And all three of them not only testified that they witnessed and overheard this domestic violence, that they witnessed and overheard threats towards Stacy from Jimmy Fanel, but they approached this wems outside of their church and
were told and I quote, to hush your mouth. So they were warned off by the police, and so they never came forward and when asked, when Miss Sappington was asked why she didn't even though she knew Jimmy had probably done it, and it seemed clear to her that Rodney never had. This is a white woman from Texas, a church going woman from a good family, said simply that she was scared of the police and that it simply wasn't worth the risk to her family, but that
they simply couldn't stay quiet any longer. And you know, her son then took to the stand and mentioned that during the day when Stacy and Jimmy were home on one particular occasion, he'd gone to their back door to inquire because he'd heard tables and chairs being thrown and screaming and shouting, and that he'd said to his father when he came on came home what he'd heard, and his father had basically said on the stand that that's Jimmy up there yelling at Stacy. It goes on all
the time. So there was this clear evidence of ongoing domestic violence by Jimmy Fanel being committed against Stacy.
It makes me just wonder, Martin, you know what you said about, you know, this white church going lady being scared of the police. Did it come up in the trial at all about why the case wasn't probably investigated and why Jimmy Fanell wasn't actually charged over this overseas's murder, Because, as you've said many times, like the first suspect is
the husband, the partner, or the fiance. Did it come up in the hearing about why or why the police investigation actually zeroed in on Rodney and why not Jimmy Fanel.
Well, there's a few reasons, I mean, one being that Jimmy was a local police officer and it was his partner and good friend who were investigating this murder. Now, for those who have been listening, they may know what happened to those officers. For those who haven't, I'll explain. So one of those officers' names was Ed Celmeller, and six months after Stacey died, before Rodney had ever been charged,
Ed committed suicide. Except there was a problem, and this was evidence that we presented in the past few weeks. Ed was right handed. Naturally had always been right handed. All his police documentation showed that that he wrote right handed, used his firearm right handed. The forensic evidence clearly shows
he killed himself with his left hand. Now, one of the problems with that is Ed cel Meller couldn't hit the side of a barn with his left hand because he'd sustained an injury while serving as a police officer to his left hand. And so his brother has continued to give evidence that not only was his brother not suicidal, that his brother suspected Jimmy Fanel, his colleague, and that he did not believe his brother could possibly have killed himself.
Now this wasn't new. This was something we've made available to the public. Something that wasn't known is that one of the other officers, Gary joe' bryant, was investigating Stacy's death for the neighboring police department, that was the Giddings Police Department. Now, what we've always known is that just like Ed Celmeller, Gary jo'bryant died too before Rodney was ever arrested, and he'd told his wife, and his wife testified that Gary jo'bryant, the Giddings police officer, believed it
was Jimmy who'd killed Stacy, and he was investigating that. Now, up until the last few weeks, we'd been told that Gary joe' bryant had been murdered by a Mexican immigrant who was in Texas without papers. And for Australians, where this murder in Texas took place is very close to the Texas border. We're also led to believe that it was an automatic weapon that was used to kill Gary joe' bryant. This is a police officer investigating Jimmy Fanel who believed
Jimmy was the real killer. Well, what we learned this week is there probably never was a Mexican because when we've demanded to have that person, this Mexican citizen, brought before the court, that's been denied. Now, finally, the state of Texas has claimed that that Mexican man was deported back to Mexico and never charged with the police officer's murder. Now,
this is ridiculous. No one can possibly believe that what they and I quote an illegal immigrant could kill a serving police officer and never be charged with murder, that they would simply just deport them back, get away with it, away you go. So that's ridiculous, So we don't believe that person ever existed. What else we learned this week was something really shocking that, just like ed Selmeller, Gary Jo Bryant was killed with his own gun, a forty
five pistol that was his police service weapon. Now this had never been disclosed before. So here we have two police officers investigating Jimmy Fanel. One has told his brother he believes Jimmy did it. The others told his wife that they believe he did it. And within about a week they're both dead, murdered with their own guns, but not killed. They didn't kill themselves quite clearly. Is shocking, and their families deserve answers too.
And we've talked a lot about this case, and you've outlined a lot of the evidence before and just knowing that evidence, but also knowing just hearing what you're saying today, all the new witnesses, all the evidence that hadn't previously come before court, the fact these two police officers who are investigating Jimmy Finill were found dead, it makes you know, it's almost unbelievable to think that Rodney Read isn't free. What were the prosecution's case or what did they bring to the hearing.
Yes, so they brought to the hearing a number of witnesses who were largely police officers and largely friends and family of Stacy. One of those police officers is a former detective who was involved in the initial investigation, and he was the first person to the scene, and he made quite a few slip so, I mean, initially he claimed that they thoroughly investigated Jimmy and he was first to the scene and he was able to rule Jimmy
out for a variety of reasons. The problem with his evidence, and his name is retired police detective David Board, was that he claims when he found Jimmy's truck in a school parking lot the following day, he clearly noticed there'd been a struggle inside the truck, that one of Stacy's tennis shoes was still in in the truck, and that there was broken glass in there. And this was before he knew that only Jimmy and Stacy's DNA was in there. So he was trying to and still claiming that it
was someone else involved in this struggle with Stacy. But where he really made an error was that he claims he called Jimmy, and Jimmy was at home and hadn't been woken during the night. How he knows that is anyone's guess. That he'd found and Stacy's truck that looked like there'd been a struggle. They'd found Stacy's body, and could Jimmy come to the truck and the truck was about thirty miles from Jimmy's house and Jimmy turned up. How the hell did Jimmy know where the truck was parked?
So here was a police prosecutor, prosecution witness who made a huge error. He'd never told Jimmy where the truck was. His note shows that he never did. And this was something that ed Selmeller, who had arrived at the scene too, thought was very suspicious, and he'd wrote that in his book, in his little police book. But of course he'd be
found dead. Now. When he was really questioned this David Board about his evidence, he was asked was he a member of a Facebook group of witnesses for the prosecution who were sharing him information together to make sure their stories were the same, And he said no, Well, we have accessed that Facebook group and there was a number of comments that he'd made he was a member of the group. In fact, he'd made comments that day in terms of the day he was called to give evidence
in that Facebook group. So this is a clear violation of the court's rulings for witnesses not to have discussed the case. So what makes David Board very interesting is that he'd had it in for Rodney long before Rodney had ever even met Stacy. In fact, we know that David Board had tried to frame Rodney in the past. He'd done a photo ID of a lineup basically, so six photos on a piece of paper to show to a witness. One of those people was Rodney. Rodney couldn't
have committed that crime. He was one hundred and fifty miles away. But David Board printed two copies, circled one to show the witness first, and then used the second one to have the witness ID Rodney. So this was a police officer who's been gunning for Rodney for the past thirty years, and here we had him lying on the stand that he wasn't part of a Facebook group.
And there was also a number of the other prosecution witnesses who were part of this Facebook group who basically we allowed to give some evidence for a while and then confronted them with that another one, another person's name was Dianthea. Lee denied it on the stand again that she was a member, and then we produced print outs showing that she had in fact posted in that group and was a member. So a lot of the prosecution witnesses were tainted before they ever got on the stand.
None of them had any new information of any kind. And again, you know, the fact they are colluding in a Facebook group doesn't say a lot about their evidence.
So the other thing I was wondering, Martin, is how have Rodney's family been holding up, particularly his mother and his brother, but his whole family as they go through this process. I mean, there must be a lot of hope there, but also you know, they've been fighting for so long. How have they been coping through this whole hearing?
It's been really difficult. I think one of the positives is that for the hearing, Rodney's been present every day, so they've been able to be in the same room as Rodney. Rodney was moved to the local prison so that he could be brought to the court each day. It's not possible when someone's on death row for them to be brought every day to the So it's been a good break in that sense for Rodney, and it's allowed his family to visit him more frequently, something they
haven't had for the past twenty five years. But for his brother, Rodrick, who travels all over the country the United States, supporting others whose loved ones are wrongly convicted and who are on death row. I think when these prosecution witnesses were on the stand and it was clear that they'd all been colluding violating the court's rulings, he basically said to the prosecutors, I don't know how you
sleep at night. And unfortunately for that, the judge banned Rodrick from the court for the rest of the hearing. But you can clearly understand Rodrick's frustration. You know, his brother's been wrongly on death row for twenty five years. Four times he's come within moments of being execs cuted. We finally had the chance to present all of this new, compelling, fresh evidence that we say shows Jimmy committed the crime, but at the very least casts enormous reasonable doubt as
to the initial trial. And here he has to watch the prosecutors lie all over again, and their witnesses life. So I think in that moment it got the better of him. But look, they're amazing people, an amazing family. His mother remains really upbeat and really positive. And they've always said, just present the evidence, and this has been Rodney's thing. He's always said too, He's got nothing to hide, show everything that there is, and that the truth set
him free. And two things that I think really lifted their spirits was that finally it was put to a court that in the months following Stacy's death, investigators asked Jimmy Farnell to take a polygraph test. They wanted to rule him out. I think they were looking to help their friend. He took one and he failed. He took a second one and he failed. So of course they never presented that to court, so this is now finally
on the record. The other evidence is that I think is really was really a boost to the family with these beer cans that were found that we've spoken about that were found near Stacy's body, three beer cans, none of which had Rodney's DNA on them. So again, Rodney's DNA hasn't been found within coo EE of this crime scene.
But the DNA from those beer cans were from ed Celmeller, one of those officers who was found dead, Stacy herself, and Jimmy's best friend David Hall, a police officer, and there is also some DNA evidence suggesting and that it can't rule out Jimmy fanew. So here we have Stacy's body in a ditch by the side of the road and three beer cans with three police officers DNA evidence on it, and that was confirmed finally by the Texas Department of Public Safeties head of the crime lab, doctor
Allison Heard. So there's been this evidence that we've said shows Rodney's innocence, but it hadn't got to court before, and here for the first time it did. So the two polygraphs of Jimmy lying and the DNA on the beer cans, and again I think that was a great boost to Rodney and his family that this was just more modern forensic evidence showing that he had nothing to do with it and this was all Jimmy.
So when is the judge to hand down his decision?
Mardin the hearing went a little bit over time. We wanted to make sure that the forensic witnesses were able to give all of their evidence. It's quite complex, but because it all points to Jimmy Finel, it was really important to get it on the record. So we were hoping for a decision on the seventeenth of August. That's been pushed back. Now the final arguments will be heard
before the seventeenth. Then the judge has until the thirty first to basically wrap up this evidentiary hearing should there be any new witnesses or any new evidence that needs to be presented. And then sometime after the thirty first of August, the judge, Judge Judge J. D. Langley, will hand down his decision again. That'll either be to exonerate Rodney, to set a new trial for Rodney where all this evidence can be heard, or for Rodney to still face
the death pen and be executed. And as soon as we hear the results of that, we'll do a show and let all our listeners know, but it'll be some time after the thirty first of August. That was curtin the podcast.