Supreme Court blocks Texas execution, allows inmate to fight for DNA testing

WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court blocked a Texas execution on Tuesday, allowing an inmate to continue his decade-old fight for DNA testing to challenge his death sentence for the 1998 murder of a retired teacher.

While the court’s execution stays are exceedingly rare, the justices’ order marks the second time the court has prevented Texas from executing Ruben Gutierrez.

Gutierrez was convicted in 1999 of capital murder for the killing of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison. Prosecutors framed the crime as a robbery attempt gone wrong, claiming that Gutierrez and two others planned to lure Harrison out of her mobile home to steal cash she kept in her residence.

The scheme did not go as expected, however, and evidence showed that two men entered Harrison’s home and stabbed her to death with two screwdrivers.

Despite failed attempts to challenge his conviction in state and federal courts, Gutierrez still maintains that he never entered Harrison’s mobile home or knew anyone would be harmed in the robbery. For 13 years, Gutierrez has tried to get DNA testing of crime scene items collected by detectives.

“If this crime were committed today, DNA testing of these items would have already happened, and Gutierrez never would have been sentenced to death,” Gutierrez wrote in his petition before the court.

Under Texas law, anyone involved in the murder — even those who do not actually kill — is eligible for the death penalty. Gutierrez claimed that DNA testing would prove he did not kill Harrison or know her life was in danger, making him ineligible for execution.

Two Texas courts denied the testing requests, ruling that even if there was evidence that he did not kill Harrison, Gutierrez would still be guilty of murder under the state’s laws for his involvement in the scheme

In 2019, a trial court briefly granted the DNA motion but retracted the approval after the state weighed in on the appeal.

In a new tactic, Gutierrez challenged the constitutionality of Texas’ post-conviction DNA testing procedures and execution protocols.

The Supreme Court agreed to put Gutierrez’s execution on hold in 2020 to review Texas’ ban on clergy accompanying inmates into the execution chamber.

Gutierrez’s motions for DNA testing then ping-ponged through state and federal appeals. His current challenge stems from a split decision out of the Fifth Circuit holding that Gutierrez lacked standing, preventing additional testing.

Gutierrez turned to an appeal from a fellow Texas death row inmate Rodney Reed to defend his ability to bring the motion. In 2023, the court ruled that Reed had standing to challenge the state’s statute of limitations on DNA testing. Gutierrez said his standing claim is indistinguishable from Reed’s.

“The Fifth Circuit’s decision to fashion a new, burdensome test has created a circuit split with the Eighth and Ninth Circuits, both of which applied Reed to cases with plaintiffs in situations virtually identical to those of Reed and Gutierrez,” Gutierrez wrote in his petition. “This court should grant certiorari to resolve the circuit split and to ensure fidelity to its precedent.”

Texas said Gutierrez’s serial challenges to his long-final conviction needed to end. The state said Gutierrez’s motions for DNA testing had been denied time and time again because state law does not allow post-conviction testing to challenge death sentences.

“Gutierrez’s petition and application for a stay of execution are based on nothing more than his disagreement with the Fifth Circuit’s straightforward application of this Court’s holding in Reed v. Goertz ,” Texas’ assistant attorney general Jefferson Clendenin wrote in the state’s brief. “His overwrought interpretation of that straightforward application presents nothing worthy of this court’s attention.”

The justices said Gutierrez’s execution could be delayed until the court decided whether or not to take up his appeal. The court’s execution stay will end immediately if the justices deny Gutierrez’s petition or remain paused until the justices issue a decision in his case if his petition is granted.

The court did not explain its order and there were no noted dissents.

Shawn Nolan, Gutierrez’s attorney, said the court’s order gave them hope that Gutierrez will finally secure the DNA testing he has spent 13 years chasing.

“Mr. Gutierrez has been requesting DNA testing for more than a decade to prove he did not kill the victim in this case,” Nolan wrote in a statement. “We are hopeful that now the court has stepped in to stop this execution, we can ultimately accomplish the DNA testing to prove that Mr. Gutierrez should not be executed now or in the future.”

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