HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A guy from Texas was supposed to be put to death by lethal injection Tuesday night, but the U.S. Supreme Court stopped the execution 20 minutes before it was supposed to happen. The prisoner has long said that DNA testing would help show that he wasn’t the one who fatally stabbed an 85-year-old woman during a home invasion many years ago.
The country’s highest court granted the indefinite stay just minutes before Ruben Gutierrez was supposed to be taken to a Huntsville prison’s death chamber.
In 1998, Gutierrez was found guilty of killing Escolastica Harrison at her home in Brownsville, which is in the southern tip of Texas. The retired teacher and manager of a mobile home park were killed as part of a plan to steal more than $600,000 that she had hidden in her home because she didn’t trust banks.
Gutierrez wants to get DNA tests. He says this will help show that he had nothing to do with her death. His lawyers have said that no physical or forensic proof links him to the murder. Two more people were charged in the case as well.
The short order from the high court, which came out at 5:40 p.m. CDT, said that the execution would be put on hold until the judges decided if they should look over his appeal request. The execution stay would end automatically if the court says no to the request.
Gutierrez was going to be put to death at 6 p.m. CDT, but he was in a holding cell close to the death chamber when Kelly Strong, the jail warden, told him that the court was stepping in.
Amanda Hernandez, a spokeswoman for the prison, said, “He was visibly emotional.” She also said that he wasn’t expecting the court stay. When we asked him to say something, he said he needed a minute.
“He walked to the back of the cell and put his hand over his mouth.” He was crying and couldn’t say anything. He was shocked.
She said Gutierrez then prayed with a jail chaplain and said, “God is great!”
In the past few years, Gutierrez’s execution dates have been pushed back several times, sometimes because of problems with having a spiritual advisor in the death chamber. Gutierrez was about an hour away from being put to death in June 2020 when the Supreme Court stopped the execution.
In the most recent appeal, Gutierrez’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to step in, saying that Texas had violated his state law right to DNA tests after his conviction, which would have shown that he should not have been put to death.
His lawyers said that some of the things that were found at the crime scene, like Harrison’s nail scrapings, a hair that was wrapped around one of her fingers, and blood samples from her home, had never been tested.
“Gutierrez faces not only being denied DNA testing, which is something he has been asking for more than a decade but also being put to death for a crime he did not commit.” In their letter to the Supreme Court, Gutierrez’s lawyers said, “No one has any interest in a wrongful execution.”
Gutierrez’s lawyer, Shawn Nolan, was happy with the court’s ruling late Tuesday night. Nolan said in an email, “We are hopeful that now that the Court has stepped in to stop this execution, we can finally do the DNA testing to prove that Mr. Gutierrez should not be executed now or in the future.”
Prosecutors say that the request for DNA testing is just a way to delay the case. They say that Gutierrez was found guilty based on several pieces of evidence, such as a statement in which he said he planned the theft and was in the victim’s home when she was killed.
Gutierrez was found guilty based on Texas’ law of parties, which says that someone can be responsible for another person’s acts if they help or encourage them to do something illegal.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office replied to Gutierrez’s Supreme Court petition. They said that state law does not allow “postconviction DNA testing to show the innocence of the death penalty and, even if it did, Gutierrez would not be entitled to it.”
Lower courts have turned down Gutierrez’s pleas for DNA tests in the past.
The police say Gutierrez made friends with Harrison so he could rob her. Prosecutors said Harrison put her money in her bedroom closet under a fake floor.
Two of Harrison’s nephews and three of their friends were supposed to be there when the man was put to death. They wouldn’t say anything about the court’s stay.
In this case, Three people are charged: Gutierrez, Garcia, and Gracia. Rene Garcia is in a Texas prison serving a life term. Pedro Gracia, who police say was the getaway driver, is still on the run.
