All eyes on Texas governor as calls grow to halt execution of Rodney Reed
AUSTIN, Texas — In his five years as Texas' governor, Republican Greg Abbott has overseen the execution of nearly 50 prisoners while only once sparing a condemned man's life, after a victims' family asked him to do so.
It's unclear if the public pressure is making any impression on Abbott, who was a law and order state attorney general before he was elected governor. Abbott hasn't spoken publicly about Reed's case. Even Republican lawmakers who are close to the governor and have lobbied his office in recent days and weeks for a reprieve say they're in the dark about his thinking.
Reed has long maintained that Stites was killed by her fiance, former police officer Jimmy Fennell. Reed says Fennell was angry because Stites, who was white, was having an affair with Reed, who is black. In recent weeks, Reed's attorneys have presented affidavits that support his claims, including one by a former prison inmate who claims Fennell bragged about killing Stites and referred to Reed by a racial slur.
Support for the death penalty has been declining in recent years, but in Texas, Abbott hasn't relaxed his position. A practicing Roman Catholic, Abbott breaks with the church on the Vatican's view that capital punishment can never be sanctioned, and efforts to scale back the types of crimes that carry the death penalty in Texas have stalled under his watch.
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