Jonathan Bruce Reed has been on Texas' death row for almost 30 years. He raped and murdered Wanda Jean Wadle, a Braniff Airlines flight attendant, in 1978. A three-judge federal appeals court panel in New Orleans last week reversed his conviction because there were no blacks on his jury. The odd thing about this reversal is that Reed is white. The scary thing is that he must be released unless he is granted a new trial within 120 days.
Reed claims he is innocent, but his defense attorney must not believe him. He said that Reed is a changed man and deserves to be released. "I'm innocent" is quite a bit different from "I've changed." "I've changed" leaves the impression that I did it, but I'm not like that anymore. By the way, Reed was convicted twice of this crime -- his 1979 conviction was overturned and he was retried in 1983 and convicted again.
An interesting side note: The Dallas Morning News says, "Reed, who has always said he was at work and his parents' home when Wadle was killed, could not be reached for comment Tuesday." Don't they know where he is?
"Conviction tossed in death row case." The Dallas Morning News; January 14, 2009; p. 1A.
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