Death row inmate in Texas: Supreme Court grants stay of execution for Ruben Gutierrez just 20 minutes before planned lethal injection

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — The U.S. Supreme Court granted a stay of execution to a Texan man 20 minutes before his lethal injection Tuesday night. The inmate has long claimed that a DNA test could prove he was not responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman during a home invasion decades ago.

The nation’s highest court issued the indefinite stay shortly before inmate Ruben Gutierrez was due to be transferred to the execution chamber at a Huntsville prison.

Gutierrez was convicted of the 1998 murder of Escolastica Harrison in her home in Brownsville, on the southern tip of Texas. Prosecutors said the killing of the trailer park manager and retired teacher was part of an attempt to steal more than $600,000 she had hidden in her home because of her distrust of banks.

Gutierrez has requested a DNA test, which he says will help prove he had nothing to do with her death. His lawyers have said there is no physical or forensic evidence linking him to the murder. Two other people have also been charged in the case.

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The Supreme Court’s brief order, released at 5:40 p.m. CDT, said the stay would remain in effect until the justices decide whether to consider his appeal. If the court denies the appeal, the stay will automatically be lifted.

Gutierrez, whose death was scheduled for after 6 p.m. CDT, was in a holding cell near the death chamber when prison warden Kelly Strong informed him of the court’s intervention.

“He was visibly emotional,” said prison spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez, adding that he had not expected the court to adjourn. “We asked him if he wanted to make a statement, but he needed a minute.”

“He turned around, went to the back corner of the cell and covered his mouth. He was in tears, speechless. He was shocked.”

She said Gutierrez then prayed with a prison chaplain and added: “God is great!”

In recent years, several execution dates for Gutierrez have been postponed, in part because of the presence of a chaplain in the execution chamber. In June 2020, Gutierrez was about an hour away from being executed when he received a stay from the Supreme Court.

In the most recent appeal, Gutierrez’s lawyers had asked the Supreme Court to intervene, arguing that Texas had denied him the right under state law to a post-conviction DNA test that would prove he was not eligible for the death penalty.

His lawyers argued that several items recovered from the crime scene – including Harrison’s fingernails, a loose hair found wrapped around one of her fingers, and various blood samples from her apartment – had never been tested.

SEE ALSO: US Supreme Court stops execution of Ruben Gutierrez in Texas

“Gutierrez faces not only the denial (of a DNA test) that he has repeatedly and consistently requested for over a decade, but also the threat of execution for a crime he did not commit. No one has an interest in a wrongful execution,” Gutierrez’s lawyers wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court.

Shawn Nolan, an attorney for Gutierrez, expressed his satisfaction with the court’s decision late Tuesday. “We hope that now that the court has intervened to prevent this execution, we can finally conduct the DNA testing to prove that Mr. Gutierrez should not be executed now or in the future,” Nolan said in an emailed statement.

Prosecutors said the request for a DNA test was a delaying tactic and that Gutierrez was convicted based on several pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he admitted to planning the robbery and being in her home at the time of her murder.

Gutierrez was convicted under the Texas Party Law, which states that a person can be held liable for the actions of another if that person aids or abettes the commission of a crime.

In their response to Gutierrez’s petition to the Supreme Court, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office said state law “does not provide for post-conviction DNA testing to prove innocence for the death penalty, and even if it did exist, Gutierrez would not be entitled to it.”

Lower courts had previously rejected Gutierrez’s requests for a DNA test.

Authorities said Gutierrez befriended Harrison so he could rob her. Prosecutors said Harrison hid her money under a false floor in her bedroom closet.

Two of Harrison’s nephews and three of their friends were scheduled to attend the execution. They declined to comment on the court’s delay.

Police have charged three people in the case: Rene Garcia, Pedro Gracia and Gutierrez. Rene Garcia is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison, while Pedro Gracia, who police say was the getaway driver, is still at large.