Delay of Texas death row inmate’s execution has not been the norm for Supreme Court, experts say
HOUSTON — Prisoner in Texas Ruben Gutierrez had spent several hours with his wife and attorney on Tuesday evening prior to his execution, before he was eventually transferred to a holding cell at the state prison in Huntsville to await his lethal injection.
But about 20 minutes before he was to be taken to nearby death row, the prison warden told Gutierrez that the U.S. Supreme Court 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 attorney were overjoyed by the high court’s decision, while family members of the 85-year-old South Texas woman he fatally stabbed decades ago said they were devastated by the delay. Gutierrez had been granted a similar extension at the last minute for 2020.
According to experts, the Supreme Court has rarely granted last-minute reprieves to death row inmates. A majority of justices are skeptical and even hostile to such requests.
Here are some things to know about Gutierrez’s case and the Supreme Court’s history of last-minute requests to stay executions:
Gutierrez was sentenced to death after being convicted of first-degree murder for the 1998 killing of Escolastica Harrison in her Brownsville home in South Texas.
Prosecutors say the killings of the mobile home park manager and the retired teacher were part of an attempt to steal more than $600,000 she had hidden in her home because of her distrust of banks.
Gutierrez has spent more than a decade seeking DNA testing that he claims would help prove he had no role in her death. His lawyers have said there is no physical or forensic evidence linking him to the murder. Two others have also been charged in the case.
Prosecutors said the request for DNA testing was a delaying tactic and Gutierrez was convicted based on several pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he admitted planning the robbery.
Gutierrez was convicted under Texas law, which states that a person can be held liable for the actions of others if that person aided or abetted the commission of a crime.
“The fact that the court has stepped in and stopped this execution gives us an opportunity to try to convince other actors in the state to allow us to do the testing that we’ve been asking for forever,” said Shawn Nolan, one of Gutierrez’s attorneys. Nolan said such delays in executions by the Supreme Court are rare.
Robin M. Maher, director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Wednesday that of the 26 requests for stays of executions filed with the Supreme Court last year, only one was approved.
A 2023 analysis by Bloomberg Law She found that of the 270 emergency deportations requested by death row inmates in the U.S. between 2013 and 2023, only 11, or 4%, were approved by the Supreme Court, she said.
In a 2019 Supreme Court ruling that denied a Missouri inmate Russell Bucklew’s Request to Stop His ExecutionJustice Neil Gorsuch wrote: “Last-minute stays should be an extreme exception, not the norm.”
Maher said Gorsuch’s statement has been used by prosecutors in states with the death penalty to oppose efforts to give prisoners and their lawyers more time in their cases.
“I think the majority of the Supreme Court views requests for stays of execution with deep suspicion and even hostility,” said Maher, whose Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit organization does not take a position on the death penalty but has criticized the way states carry out executions.
Nolan said being within minutes of execution twice in the past four years has taken a heavy psychological toll on Gutierrez. He had spent part of Tuesday’s gathering with his family, which he thought was the last time.
“We all think about our own end of life in very difficult ways, or in psychological, emotional ways. That’s certainly how Ruben has tried to deal with this,” Nolan said.
Maher said what Gutierrez has now experienced twice, when he came within minutes of death, is a form of torture.
Harrison’s family and Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz expressed frustration over the delay.
“It’s just terrible news, you know? We’ve been waiting for this moment for over two and a half decades,” said Alex Hernandez, Harrison’s cousin, told KRGV.
Maher said she understands the frustration of the victim’s family, but that the delay is necessary to hopefully allow for DNA testing to be conducted so “no one is executed who does not deserve that punishment.”
Nolan said that if the Supreme Court decides to accept Gutierrez’s case, it will be argued before the justices. If the high court rejects it, the stay will be lifted and prosecutors can ask the judge in the case for a new execution date. Under Texas law, a new date would have to be set three months after a judge issues a new order.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: https://twitter.com/juanlozano70