Oprah Winfrey lent her voice to the rallying cry for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stop the Nov. 20 execution of Rodney Reed.
In an interview on CBS This Morning, Winfrey urged Abbott to take a deeper look into the Reed case, and the reason why so many Americans want his execution halted.
“At least the governor has to pause and look at the 2 million people who have signed a petition,” she said. “Two million voices saying listen to us, something is off here. Something needs to be done. Governor, if you’re watching, hello. I think this is a sign you’re supposed to at least not execute, but look at it,” she said.
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The signatures she is referring to were collected on freerodneyreed.com. Change.org also created a petition and collected more than 300,000 signatures.
In addition to Oprah and Gayle King, celebrities such as Rihanna, Beyoncé, LL Cool J, and Kim Kardashian West have spoken out regarding Reed. Religious leaders like Bishop Joe S. Vásquez, head of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Austin, have joined the chorus of voices urging the governor to take a beat and reconsider his decision on this case, and dozens of Democratic and Republican state lawmakers have put aside party politics to ask Gov. Abbott to stop the execution.
Reed, 51, was sentenced to die for the 1996 rape and strangulation murder of 19-year-old Stacey Stites. He has been on death row since 1998 and has maintained his innocence from the very beginning. His lawyers, who come from The Innocence Project, have argued that Reed was denied a full and fair trial on multiple counts. Another key point that the lawyers want to be reviewed that could possibly clear Reed’s name is that the belt used to strangle Stites has DNA evidence on it that was never tested.
Source: Oprah Winfrey joins fight to save Rodney Reed’s life
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