On April 23, 1996, Stacey Stites was raped, strangled and her body was dumped on the side of a country road in Bastrop, Texas. Police theorized that Stacey was abducted at around 3:00 a.m. while on her way to the H.E.B. store in Bastrop, where she worked an early morning shift in the produce department. The truck she was driving was found abandoned at Bastrop High School, which was 35 miles from the apartment in Giddings that she shared with her future husband, Jimmy Fennell. In March, 1997, DNA results from Stacey’s body linked Rodney Reed to her murder. Initially, Reed denied knowing Stacey. Later, he claimed to have had a secret relationship with her. That defense proved ineffective at trial and Reed was convicted and sentenced to death in May, 1998. Reed’s direct appeal and numerous state and federal writs have been unsuccessful. Join Lisa O’Brien on Sunday, August 22, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. Central for a look at the myths circulated in the media about the case and the improbable scenario of a law enforcement cover-up to protect Jimmy Fennell. She’ll be joined by guests, including a member of Bastrop law enforcement.

On April 23, 1996, Stacey Stites was raped, strangled and her body was dumped on the side of a country road in Bastrop, Texas. Police theorized that Stacey was abducted at around 3:00 a.m. while on her way to the H.E.B. store in Bastrop, where she worked an early morning shift in the produce department. The truck she was driving was found abandoned at Bastrop High School, which was 35 miles from the apartment in Giddings that she shared with her future husband, Jimmy Fennell. In March, 1997, DNA results from Ms. Stites’ body linked Rodney Reed to the murder. Initially, Reed claimed not to know Stacey. Later, he claimed to have had a secret relationship with her. That defense proved ineffective at trial and Reed was convicted and sentenced to death in May, 1998. Reed’s direct appeal and numerous state and federal writs have been unsuccessful. Join Lisa O’Brien and Michael Carnahan on Sunday, August 15, 2021 at 8:00 p.m. Central for a re-cap of the evidentiary hearing held in July to develop some of Reed’s claims in his 10th state post-conviction writ. We’ll be joined guests, including two people who attended the hearings.

Join Lisa O’Brien and Michael Carnahan on Sunday, August 1, 2021 for Clear and Convincing podcast, Episode 18, State of Arkansas v. Marcel Wayne Williams. In April, 2017, Governor Asa Hutchins set execution dates for eight men on Arkansas death row. The primary reason for the governor’s decision was that each of the inmates had exhausted their state and federal post conviction remedies. In the media, the sole reason given was that the state’s supply of lethal injection drugs was about to expire. Marcel Wayne Williams was tried, convicted and sentenced to death for the November 20, 1994 kidnapping, robbery, rape and murder of Stacy Rae Errickson, a 22 year old mother of two. Williams kidnapped Stacy at gunpoint from a gas station in Jacksonville, Arkansas. Williams was arrested on November 29, 1994, days before Stacy’s body was found buried in a shallow grave. We’ll talk about Stacy’s murder, his arrest, trial and conviction and the course of his direct appeal and post-conviction claims. Finally, we’ll talk about his execution in April, 2017 and the delay caused by allegations that Jack Jones’ execution was botched.