A Native American man convicted of murdering a Limerick priest 40 years ago was exonerated of the killing on Wednesday.
Last month, Ector County District Court in Texas recommended that James Reyos’s conviction be quashed after a previous hearing last March heard overwhelming evidence of Mr Reyos’ innocence.
Today’s ruling exonerating Mr Reyos was delivered by the Court of Criminal Appeals in Austin, Texas, much to the delight of Mr Reyos, as well as members of the Innocence Project of Texas (IPTX), which had spearheaded his campaign for justice.
The Ector County’s district attorney’s office – which initially prosecuted Mr Reyos – later supported the quashing of his conviction for murdering Fr Patrick Ryan (49), from Doon, Co Limerick.
“We are excited to share that this morning, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals ruled that our client James Reyos is innocent. James was convicted in 1983 of the murder of Father Patrick Ryan in Odessa. The court's ruling means that after more than 40 years, James' name has finally been cleared,” read a statement released by IPTX.
"Today's decision would not have been possible without James' strength and bravery," remarked Allison Clayton, deputy director of IPTX.
"We are grateful to the Odessa Police Department and Ector Count District Attorney’s Office for their cooperation. This case is a testament to what can happen when everyone works together for justice,” Ms Clayton said.
A false confession
On December 21st, 1981, Fr Patrick Ryan was found murdered in a motel room in Odessa, Texas.
During the initial investigation, the police interviewed James Reyos, who was the last known person to see the Limerick cleric alive.
Mr Reyos established through multiple witnesses, store receipts, and even a speeding ticket, that he was in New Mexico at the time of the murder and Texas Rangers verified this information and ruled him out as a suspect.
A year later, while heavily intoxicated on drugs and alcohol, Mr Reyos called 911 and confessed to the murder.
Once he was arrested, Reyos immediately recanted. However, he claimed that on the day before the murder, Fr Ryan forced him to perform oral sex at his apartment.
The State indicted and tried Reyos for the killing, and, in addition to his confession, the prosecution focused extensively on Reyos’ Apache Native American race and the fact that he was gay.
The murder trial heard claims from other witnesses that Fr Ryan had approached other men looking for sex, a charge the prosecution said was an attempt to sully the Limerick priest’s character.
Despite his airtight alibi, Reyos was found guilty by a jury who at the time said their decision was based on the confession and on Reyos’ “characteristics.”
Mr Reyos was initially released in 2004, after more than 20 years in prison. But, despite significant support from attorneys, legal scholars and legislators who believed he was wrongly convicted, there was no legal path forward to prove his innocence because all evidence from the case was thought to have been destroyed.
Fingerprints
However, in 2022, members of the Odessa Police Department (OPD) discovered fingerprints in their archived files that had been taken from the crime scene and from Fr Ryan’s stolen car and wallet.
OPD ran the prints through the national fingerprint database, revealing the identities of the chief suspects for Fr Ryan’s killing.
The three male suspects were individuals with criminal histories who were known to be staying at the same motel at the time of the murder.
Fr Ryan’s naked, beaten and slashed body was discovered in Room 126, Sand and Sage Motel, Odessa, 128km from his Texas home, on December 21st, 1981.
Police found that Fr Ryan – who was serving as parish priest of Denver City and Plains, in Texas – had left his apartment in a hurry and had checked into the Odessa motel under an assumed name and address.
All of the suspected perpetrators have since died.
IPTX estimates there are between 3,000 and 9,000 innocent people currently in Texas prisons “with the rate of wrongful convictions being estimated between 2 per cent and 6 per cent”.
The Project “works to achieve the release and exoneration of wrongfully convicted Texans by providing first-rate legal counsel and investigative services at no cost”.
