Minutes before convicted murderer Ruben Gutierrez was to receive a lethal injection for his role in the 1998 murder of an 85-year-old woman in Texas, the Supreme Court issued a stay of execution.
Gutierrez, 47, was convicted in 1999, when he was 21, of killing Escolastica Harrison with a screwdriver inside her home in a mobile home park in the city of Brownsville, just north of the Mexican border on the Texas Gulf Coast.
Gutierrez maintained his innocence and said he was not in the house at the time. Gutierrez admitted to taking part in the attempt to rob Harrison of $600,000 she kept at her home because of her distrust of banks.
The Supreme Court must now decide whether Gutierrez and his legal team can appeal to the nation’s highest court. The case had already become public knowledge when Kim Kardashian appealed to Texas Governor Gregg Abbot to stop the execution.
He was scheduled to die at 18:00 local time on 16 July. The sentence was announced at 17:40. He was in a holding cell when prison warden Kelly Strong told him of the suspension.
“He was visibly emotional,” said prison spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez, adding that the defendant had not expected the judicial suspension. “We asked him if he wanted to make a statement, but he needed a minute.”
The nation’s highest court issued the indefinite stay shortly before inmate Ruben Gutierrez was to be taken to the execution chamber at a Huntsville prison.
Gutierrez was convicted of the 1998 murder of Escolastica Harrison, shown here with her husband at a family wedding.
“She turned around and stood at the back of the cell, covering her mouth. She was crying, speechless. She was in shock.”
He said Gutierrez then prayed with a prison chaplain and added: “God is great!”
Gutierrez’s legal fight has been ongoing since 2009, when he began requesting post-conviction DNA testing. His lawyers maintain that DNA testing will prove he was not at the home at the time of the murder. Two other people are charged in the case.
He has had several previous execution dates in recent years that have been delayed, including by having a spiritual adviser in the death chamber.
In June 2020, Gutiérrez was an hour away from his execution when he received a stay from the Supreme Court.
At the time of the trial, prosecutors said the killing of the mobile home 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.
“The motion for a stay of execution of the death sentence as presented to Judge Alito and referred by him to the Court is granted pending the decision on the petition for writ of certiorari,” the Supreme Court ruling states.
‘If the petition for certiorari is denied, the stay shall automatically terminate. If the petition for certiorari is granted, the stay shall terminate upon the entry of the judgment of this Court.’
In 2020, Kim Kardashian thanked the U.S. Supreme Court for granting Gutierrez a stay of execution. She is seen during a visit to the White House in 2019 above
The reality star turned criminal justice reform advocate celebrated the news on social media.
Her attorneys argued that several items recovered from the crime scene, including nail scrapings from Harrison, a loose hair wrapped around one of her fingers and several blood samples from inside her home, were never tested.
“Gutierrez faces not only the denial of (the DNA test) he has repeatedly and consistently requested for more than a decade, but also execution for a crime he did not commit. No one has any interest in an unjust execution,” Gutierrez’s lawyers wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court.
Shawn Nolan, Gutierrez’s attorney, expressed satisfaction with the court’s decision Tuesday night. “We are hopeful that now that the court has stepped in to stop 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 Gutierrez was trying to steal more than $600,000 that Escolastica Harrison had hidden in her home when he killed her.
Prosecutors have said the request for DNA testing is a delaying tactic and that Gutierrez was convicted based on several pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he admitted planning the robbery and that he was inside her home when she was killed.
Gutierrez was convicted under Texas’ parties law, which says a person can be held liable for the actions of others if they aid or encourage 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 on the death penalty, and even if it did, Gutierrez would not be entitled to it.”
Lower courts have previously denied Gutierrez’s requests for DNA testing.
Authorities said Gutierrez befriended Harrison so he could rob him. Prosecutors said Harrison hid his money under a false floor in his bedroom closet.
Two of Harrison’s nephews and three of his friends were to have witnessed the execution, but they declined to comment on the stay of execution.
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, remains at large.
