Experts say delaying the execution of a death row inmate in Texas was not the norm for the Supreme Court

HOUSTON – Texas inmate Ruben Gutierrez had spent several hours before his execution scheduled for Tuesday night talking with his wife and lawyer before he was finally transferred to a holding cell at Huntsville State Prison to await the lethal injection.

But about twenty minutes before he was due to be taken to the nearby execution chamber, the prison warden informed Gutierrez that the U.S. Supreme Court had granted him a stay of execution.

Gutierrez prayed with a prison chaplain and said, “God is great! I didn’t expect this.”

Gutierrez’s wife and lawyer were overjoyed by the Supreme Court’s decision, while family members of the 85-year-old South Texas woman he stabbed to death decades ago said they were devastated by the delay. Gutierrez had received a similar last-minute reprieve in 2020.

Last-minute reprieves from the Supreme Court to those sentenced to death are rare, and experts say the majority of judges are skeptical or even hostile toward such requests.

Here are some things to know about the Gutierrez case and the Supreme Court’s history regarding last-minute requests to stay executions:

Who is Ruben Gutierrez

Gutierrez was sent to death row after being convicted of capital crimes for 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 been trying for over a decade to get a DNA test that he said would help him 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.

Prosecutors said the request for a DNA test was a delaying tactic and that Gutierrez was found guilty based on several pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he admitted to planning the robbery.

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.

“The fact that the court has intervened and stopped the execution gives us an opportunity to convince other actors in the state to allow us to do the testing we have long been demanding,” said Shawn Nolan, one of Gutierrez’s attorneys. Nolan said such execution delays by the Supreme Court are rare.

How often does the Supreme Court grant stay of execution requests?

Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Wednesday that of 26 requests for stays of executions filed with the Supreme Court last year, only one was granted.

A 2023 Bloomberg Law analysis found that of the 270 emergency reprieves requested by death row inmates in the U.S. between 2013 and 2023, only 11, or 4%, were granted by the Supreme Court, she said.

In a 2019 ruling in which the Supreme Court rejected Missouri inmate Russell Bucklew’s request to stop his execution, Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote, “Last-minute delays should be the extreme exception, not the rule.”

Maher said prosecutors in states that support the death penalty have used Gorsuch’s testimony to push back against efforts to give inmates and their lawyers more time to argue their cases.

“I think the majority of the Supreme Court views stays of execution requests with great suspicion and even hostility,” says Maher, whose Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit does not take a position on the death penalty but criticizes the way states carry out executions.

What is it like for a prisoner to be just minutes away from his execution?

Nolan said standing within minutes of execution twice in the past four years had taken a psychological toll on Gutierrez, and he spent part of Tuesday meeting with his family for what he believed would be the last time.

“We all think about the end of our own lives in very difficult or psychological, emotional ways. Ruben was certainly trying to deal with that,” Nolan said.

Maher said what Gutierrez experienced for the second time, when he was just minutes away from death, was a form of torture.

How did the victim’s family react to the stay of execution?

Harrison’s family and Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz expressed frustration over the delay.

“This is just devastating news, you know? We’ve been waiting for this to happen for over two and a half decades,” Alex Hernandez, Harrison’s nephew, told KRGV.

Maher said she understood the frustration of the victim’s family, but the delay was necessary to hopefully conduct DNA testing “so that no one is executed who does not deserve this sentence.”

Nolan said if the Supreme Court accepts Gutierrez’s case, it will go before the justices. If the Supreme Court denies it, the stay will be lifted and prosecutors can ask the trial judge for a new execution date. Under Texas law, a new date would have to be set three months before the judge issues a new sentence.

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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70