Supreme Court grants death row inmate last minute stay of execution

Minutes before a death row inmate in Texas was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection, the Supreme Court handed him a lifeline and halted the execution to consider his claim of innocence.

Ruben Gutierrez, 47, has been on death row in Huntsville since 1999 after he was convicted of capital murder for the killing of Escolastica Harrison, an 85-year-old woman who Gutierrez and two others intended to rob after discovering she kept $600,000 in cash inside her mobile home.

For the last 13 years, Gutierrez has asked state and federal courts to allow him access to the physical evidence obtained during the murder investigation so he can seek DNA testing. He claims this would prove he had a “limited” role in the murder.

Gutierrez’s attorneys argue that multiple items recovered from the crime scene, including blood samples, loose hair, nail scrapings and more were not tested.

But state courts denied his request, saying Texas’s post-conviction DNA testing statute does not allow for testing that would prove innocence if it would impact only the sentencing or punishment an individual received.

Gutierrez appealed to the federal courts, claiming that limitation in Texas’s post-conviction DNA testing statute was unconstitutional. But in February, the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court rejected his claim.

They ruled Gutierrez had no justifiable reason, known as “standing”, to bring his claim forward.

But the Supreme Court may revise that decision.

Gutierrez was scheduled to be sentenced at 6pm CDT on Tuesday. Twenty minutes before, at 5.40pm CDT, the Supreme Court agreed to consider his appeal and paused the execution.

Prison spokesperson Amanda Hernandez told The Associated Press that Gutierrez became “visibly emotional” when she