New Evidence Suggests Ledell Lee, Executed in 2017, Was Innocent

This appeared in The Millennial Source

More than two years after Ledell Lee was executed in Arkansas following a murder conviction, new evidence suggests he may have been innocent. Lee had maintained during the trial and following his subsequent murder conviction that he was innocent and supporters, including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), fought but ultimately failed to prevent his execution.

Lee’s case was taken up by the Innocence Project, a group seeking to exonerate the wrongly convicted.

What was Ledell Lee accused of?

On February 9, 1993, a 26-year-old woman named Debra Reese was beaten and strangled to death in her Jacksonville, Arkansas, home. Lee was one of Reese’s neighbors and was subsequently arrested and charged with her murder. The state accused Lee of killing Reese for “pecuniary gain” when it was discovered that a substantial amount of money had gone missing from Reese’s home following her death.

Lee was convicted and sentenced to death on October 16, 1995. Following his conviction, Lee continued to insist that he was innocent and appealed the case on the basis that his attorneys had provided him insufficient counsel.