BASTROP COUNTY, Texas - Convicted of Stacey Stites' murder in 1998, Rodney Reed and his attorneys have spent nearly 20 years declaring his innocence.

Now, they have a new opportunity to prove it.

Last week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ordered the Bastrop County trial courts to grant Reed a new hearing.

His attorneys say they have evidence that Jimmy Fennell, Stites' fiancé at the time of her murder, lied about his whereabouts the night she died.

Reed says that he and Stites were having an affair, and claims she feared Fennell's reaction should he find out.

"She told me that if Jimmy found out, that he'd kill her," Reed said during a jailhouse interview in March 2015. "I figured that was just like a figure of speech, like when you're kids and you come home late and your mom, my mom would kill me, or something like that. I figured it was just a figure of speech, and then she's dead."

According to court documents, Reed's lawyer, Bryce Benjet, was shown a CNN interview with Curtis Davis, said to be Fennell's best friend.

In the interview, which took place last spring, Davis recounted a conversation he had with Fennell on April 23, 1996 -- the day Stites' body was discovered.

Fennell, a Giddings police officer at the time, told Davis he had been drinking with other police officers the night before and didn't come home until about 11 a.m.

That differs from the testimony he gave saying he'd been home with Stites the night before she was found dead.

Reed’s attorneys argue that Fennell lied about arriving home intoxicated late at night around the time that it’s believed Stites was killed is "damning evidence of guilt."

"The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals has remanded the case in light of new evidence implicating Jimmy Fennell, and not Rodney Reed, in the murder of Stacey Stites," said Benjet. "The Court's decision reflects a mountain of exculpatory evidence that has come to light over the nineteen years since Mr. Reed's trial. We look forward to the opportunity to present this important new evidence at the hearing in October, and will continue to pursue every lead in our search for the truth in this matter."

Reed and his team maintain that this is a search for truth.

"Because of the way the system is structured, you have to prove the alternative suspect, you have to be able to do that," Reed said in the March 2015 interview.

All part of their 20 year mission to prove that the wrong man sits behind bars.

Reed's hearing is set for Oct. 10-13 at the Bastrop County Courthouse.

Meanwhile, Fennell is serving a 10-year prison sentence for raping a woman who was in his custody.

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