State brings in memory expert in Rodney Reed evidentiary hearing

BASTROP, Texas - Day six of the Rodney Reed appeal hearing was an attempt by the state to discredit the defense's witnesses. 

It all began with the state calling in Sergeant Brian Seals from the state attorney general's office. His testimony was trying to question the memory of Richard Scroggins, who testified last week about seeing a photo of Jimmy Fennell in a newspaper article.

The next witness was Dr. Deborah Davis, a psychologist and memory expert. 

The defense fought to eliminate her as a witness, bringing up the fact that she has had her testimony excluded in previous cases before, but the judge kept her on the stand. She testified that there can be contamination of memory through media reports, conformity, and witnesses talking amongst each other. 

This is what the state is trying to prove, so it can discredit the testimonies heard last week from defense witnesses. "The memory expert, I think she has a problem memorizing a lot of things, I really don't have faith in her," said Sandra Reed, Rodney Reed’s mother.

Reed's mother has been at every court date since this all started. She feels confident that things will end up in favor of her son. "All the other times we've been denied, denied, denied, but it appears that this judge is fair. That's all we want," she said.

After lunch, the state brought up several hypotheticals very similar to testimonies heard last week. Dr. Davis said hypothetically she would not give a lot of weight to those types of testimonies. 

The state is fighting to discredit the defenses' witnesses, especially due to the fact that the crime happened twenty-five years ago. 

Later in the afternoon, the state brought in Dr. Suzanna Dana, a forensic pathologist who disagreed with the time of death estimate the defense’s pathologists testified to. 

The state will continue to question Dr. Dana at Tuesday’s court date.

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