Man who denies murder of Limerick priest moves closer to seeing conviction quashed
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The man believed to have been wrongly convicted of the murder of Limerick priest Fr Patrick Ryan in Texas in 1981 is a step closer to having his conviction quashed.
The assistant district attorney for Ector County District in Texas has responded to an application by the legal team representing James Reyos, seeking the overturning of his conviction for the 1981 murder in a motel in Odessa City.
The 49-year-old Pallottine priest was buried in his native Doon in east Limerick on New Year’s Day in 1982.
Odessa Police Department has reopened the investigation into his murder following the identification of three suspects in the case after fingerprints taken from the scene in 1981 found matches in a US national fingerprint system in 2022. The suspects are all deceased.
The Innocence Project of Texas recently applied for a writ of habeas corpus for Mr Reyos.
In response, the assistant district attorney for Ector County District in Texas said: “The State has reviewed and considered Mr Reyos’ application. The State does not oppose the facts recited in the application. The State joins Mr Reyos in his request for relief."
The District Attorney has called for a court hearing to develop an official record of the issues raised in the case.
"The State respectfully requests that the court ... holds a hearing in this case, and that it ultimately grants the application given the evidence in the case," the District Attorney stated.
A court hearing on the matter will now take place on March 24 in Ector County District Court.
When discovered in a motel room in Odessa by a maid, Fr Ryan’s body was naked, bound, and beaten, and his car was later found in New Mexico.
His wallet was also later recovered away from the crime scene.
Fr Ryan had served in the US for three years before his death, after previously serving as rector of the House of Studies of the Pallottine Fathers in Stillorgan in Dublin.
Almost a year after his death, James Harry Reyos made a drunken confession that he had killed 49-year-old Fr Ryan, but later recanted.
He was convicted of the murder and sentenced to 38 years in prison. He was the last person known to have seen Fr Ryan.
If his conviction is quashed, the Apache Native American from New Mexico stands to be compensated at least $2.6m — $80,000 for each of the 20 years he spent in prison, and $50,000 for each of the 20 years he has spent on parole.
Mr Reyos met the Doon native three weeks before the murder when Fr Ryan gave him a spin when he saw him hitchhiking.
Both lived in Denver City in Texas and met a number of times in the following three weeks.
Mr Reyos, who is now 66 years old, says that Fr Ryan forced him to engage in oral sex when he visited his apartment a day before the murder in December 1981.