Three of The Conservative Supremes Agree With The Liberals: A Man On Death Row In Texas Ought To See A DNA Test, For Possible Innocence...

Thankfully, there are still some rare moments of genuine agreement on the high court.

And this time, it comes in the form of a 6-3 majority that feels before Texas may put a man to death, it should allow him to test DNA from the crime scene that might implicate the decedent's whyte boyfriend -- a police officer who had recently discovered his whyte girlfriend was secretly dating the man who is Black, and thus killed her in a fit of violent racist rage, framing the man who is now on death row in Texas.

The barbarous Texas state courts said he didn't make his request within two years. [He was in a Texas hell-hole of a prison for all of that time, with very limited access to lawyers of any kind, let alone competent genetics versed criminal defense lawyers.] So now he will get that chance. DNA from the scene will be tested. And if it excludes him, the courts ought to order the police officer to give over his DNA for testing. And maybe he should be on death row, next, in that same hell-hole. [In point of fact, the state may likely not even need it, as probably some of his blood relatives have registered with Ancestry or the like -- and he may either be excluded or included based on that other DNA. At least enough to warrant a trial.]

Here's the estimable SCOUTSBlog on it all, overnight:

. . .Reed was sentenced to death for the 1996 rape and murder of Stacey Stites. He has insisted that he was in a secret relationship with Stites and did not kill her. Instead, he suggested, Stites’ fiancé, a white police officer, had found out about her relationship with Reed, who is Black, and was actually responsible for her death.

Reed went to state court, seeking to have DNA testing conducted on several items found on or near Stites’ body and in the truck she often drove. When those efforts were unsuccessful, Reed then went to federal court in Texas, where he argued that the Texas law governing post-conviction DNA testing violates his right to due process by requiring him to comply with unconstitutional procedures before he can use the testing.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit ruled that Reed should have filed his lawsuit within two years of the trial court’s decision denying his request for DNA testing. On Wednesday, the court reversed that decision. . . .

Now you know. I will tinker no more with the machinery of death.

नमस्ते