HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution for a Texas man 20 minutes before he was scheduled to face a lethal injection Tuesday evening. The inmate has long maintained DNA testing would help prove he wasn't responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery decades ago.
The nation’s high court issued the indefinite stay shortly before inmate Ruben Gutierrez was to have been taken to the Huntsville, Texas, death chamber for the planned chemical injection.
The 47-year-old man was condemned for the 1998 stabbing of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison at her home in Brownsville. Gutierrez has sought DNA testing that he claims would help prove he had no role in her death.
His attorneys have said there’s no physical or forensic evidence connecting him to the killing. Two others were also charged in the case.
The brief order from the high court, released about 5:40 p.m. CDT, said its stay of execution would remain in effect until the justices decide whether they should review his appeal request. If the court denies the request, the execution reprieve would automatically be lifted.
Gutierrez, who had been set to die after 6 p.m. CDT, was in a holding cell a few feet from the death chamber when the prison warden, Kelly Strong, told him he had received a reprieve.
“He was visibly emotional,” prison spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez said. “We asked him if he wanted to make a statement but he needed a minute.”
“He turned around to the back of the cell, covered his mouth. He was tearing up, speechless. He was shocked.”
She said Gutierrez then prayed with a prison chaplain. The inmate said he had not expected the reprieve and added: “God is great!”
Gutierrez has had several previous execution dates in recent years that have been delayed, including over issues related to having a spiritual adviser in the death chamber. In June 2020, Gutierrez was about an hour away from execution when he got a stay from the Supreme Court.
In the most recent appeal, Gutierrez’s attorneys had asked the Supreme Court to stop the execution, arguing Texas has denied his right under state law to post-conviction DNA testing that would show he would not have been eligible for the death penalty.
His attorneys argued that various items recovered from the crime scene — including nail scrapings from Harrison, a loose hair wrapped around one of her fingers and various blood samples from within her home — have never been tested.
“Gutierrez faces not only the denial of (DNA testing) that he has repeatedly and consistently sought for over a decade, but moreover, execution for a crime he did not commit. No one has any interest in a wrongful execution,” Gutierrez’s attorneys wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court.
Prosecutors have said the request for DNA testing is a delay tactic and that Gutierrez was convicted on various pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he admitted to planning the robbery and that he was inside her home when she was killed. Gutierrez was convicted under Texas’ law of parties, which says a person can be held liable for the actions of others if they assist or encourage the commission of a crime.
In their response to Gutierrez’s Supreme Court petition, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office said state law does not provide “for postconviction DNA testing to show innocence of the death penalty and, even if it did, Gutierrez would not be entitled to it.”
Lower courts have previously denied Gutierrez’s requests for DNA testing.
Last week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against commuting Gutierrez’s death sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also rejected granting a 90-day reprieve.
Authorities said Gutierrez befriended Harrison so he could rob her. Prosecutors said Harrison hid her money underneath a false floor in her bedroom closet.
Two of Harrison's nephews and three of their friends were in Huntsville to witness the execution. They declined to comment on the court's reprieve.
Police charged three people in this case: Rene Garcia, Pedro Gracia and Gutierrez. Rene Garcia is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison while Pedro Gracia, who police said was the getaway driver, remains at large.
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Lozano reported from Houston.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70
Juan A. Lozano And Michael Graczyk, The Associated Press