Supreme Court Blocks Execution of Texas Man

Ruben Gutierrez, 47, has been given a few more days on this earth.

Gutierrez was scheduled to be executed, but his execution was halted by the Supreme Court with a temporary stay on Tuesday.

He was convicted of killing a schoolteacher after having stabbed her to death.

New Evidence

Gutierrez’s defense team is hoping to have the conviction overturned based on DNA evidence that was never tested.

The murder of Escolastica Harrison took place in 1998.

The Supreme Court honored the emergency stay without any noted dissents.

Gutierrez’s legal team has also filed a motion with the court to hear his appeal, which would revive the effort to have the DNA evidence tested.

On that filing, the court has not yet responded.

According to prosecutors, Gutierrez and two other individuals beat and stabbed Harrison, robbing her of $600,000 in cash.

According to Gutierrez, he never entered the home or thought that anyone would be harmed during the robbery.

From the outset, he has asked for DNA testing to prove his innocence of the beating and murder.

Among the items that he wanted to be tested were a blood-stained shirt, the woman’s nail scrapings, and loose hair found wrapped around her finger.

The petition stated, “The Fifth Circuit has ignored this Court’s clear precedent and gone out of its way to create an impractical, burdensome standing test requiring federal courts to probe the parties’ dispute and litigation history with a fine-toothed comb in order to tell the future, contingent actions of state officials.”

While I agree with the punishment, if they have the evidence to be tested, better safe than sorry, so I would expect the Supreme Court to rule in favor of having the evidence DNA tested.

Ken Paxton’s office, however, seems ready to fight the testing, saying that the case has been “litigated and re-litigated” for two decades, adding, “Thus, his punishment is just, and his execution will be constitutional.”