Gutierrez was set to be executed by lethal injection on Tuesday, 25 years after he was convicted of murdering Escolastica Harrison in her home in Brownsville. It’s unclear how long the delay will last
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday granted a stay of execution less than an hour before a Texas inmate was set to die by lethal injection.
Ruben Gutierrez, 47, was scheduled to be executed just after 6 p.m. CT before the high court issued the stay pending a lower court ruling regarding the inmate’s arguments over DNA testing.
While it wasn’t immediately clear how long the delay in execution will be, Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesperson Hannah Haney told USA TODAY shortly after the ruling: “There will not be an execution tonight.”
Here’s what you need to know about the case:
Ruben Gutierrez’s conviction and DNA testing argument
Gutierrez was sentenced to death in the 1998 murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison, a retired schoolteacher described by her nephew in an interview with USA TODAY as a pillar of the community and someone “everybody loved.”
Gutierrez acknowledged planning to rob Harrison but has always maintained that he was outside her house when the two men he was with went inside. He says he never thought things would turn violent and that DNA testing could exonerate him, something he has been repeatedly denied during the appeals process.
Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz refuted Gutierrez’s claims, telling USA TODAY last week that his efforts were merely a “delay tactic.”
“Justice delayed is justice denied,” he said. “I think the public is just frustrated with how long it takes for justice to be served. For Mrs. Harrison and for any victim in these situations.”
In court records, his office has argued that Gutierrez’s arguments about DNA testing amounted to an “abusive delay.”
“Gutierrez purposefully forewent DNA testing at his trial in 1999, and he has leveraged that strategic decision for the last 20 years to delay enforcement of his sentence,” prosecutors wrote this month.
USA TODAY was working to contact Saenz and Gutierrez’s attorney for comments about Tuesday’s development.
This is the seventh time Gutierrez’s execution has been delayed
Tuesday’s delay marks the seventh time Gutierrez’s execution was scheduled and then cancelled, which has amounted to “torture” for Gutierrez, his attorneys wrote in a petition for clemency that was denied Friday.
Throughout those seven death warrants since 2018, Gutierrez has spent “more than 575 days on death watch,” and could have already been in the death chamber Tuesday when the Supreme Court decision came down.
“Although Mr. Gutierrez relies primarily on his faith in God to cope with this stress, he has reported having a particularly difficult time coping and maintaining his faith and hope because of the emotional ups and downs he has experienced as a result of the numerous changes in his execution warrants,” according to the clemency petition.
Escolastica Harrison enjoying retirement when attacked at home
Harrison was enjoying retirement after decades of juggling her job as a schoolteacher and managing a trailer park that served as a “stepping stone” for struggling residents, her nephew, Alex Hernandez, told USA TODAY.
At the time of her death, another of Harrison’s nephews − Avel Cuellar − had been living with her to help her around the trailer park after her husband died. Gutierrez, a friend of Cuellar’s, hung around Harrison’s trailer park often, drinking and socializing.
Gutierrez, who was a 21-year-old married father of two at the time, befriended Harrison and would run errands for her, eventually learning that she kept a lot of cash in her home, according to court records.
Gutierrez and two other men − Rene and Pedro Garcia − went to Harrison’s home to rob her on Sept. 5, 1998.
The accounts of what happened in her home that night vary, with Gutierrez alleging that he waited outside and had no idea things would get violent. Regardless, Harrison ended up “face down in a pool of blood” after having been beaten and stabbed approximately 13 times, court records say. Though Gutierrez thought Harrison had $600,000 in the home, it’s unclear how much money the men made away with; prosecutors say it was at least $56,000.
Hernandez said it was his mother’s dying wish that he make sure Gutierrez is executed. He was set to be among the witnesses at Tuesday’s execution before it was delayed.
Source link : https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2024/07/16/supreme-court-stay-texas-ruben-gutierrez-execution/74427530007/
Author :
Publish date : 2024-07-16 19:48:45
Copyright for syndicated content belongs to the linked Source.