Court stays execution of Texas inmate

Texas' top criminal court has stayed the execution of a death row inmate whose attorneys argue he didn't kill a 19-year-old woman nearly two decades ago.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals issued a stay Monday that halts the March 5 execution of Rodney Reed.

Reed was convicted of the 1996 rape and strangling death of Stacey Stites, a grocery store worker whose body was found off the side of a road in Central Texas.

Reed's attorneys argue that another man, police officer Jimmy Fennell, killed Stites and that forensic evidence suggests she was killed hours before the time jurors were told at Reed's trial.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton's office was reviewing the court's ruling and did not immediately comment.

The Associated Press