Supreme Court to weigh a Texas death row case after halting execution

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Supreme Court will hear the case of a Texas man on death row. He has long argued that DNA testing could help prove he did not kill an 85-year-old woman during a home invasion decades ago.

The order came out Friday in Ruben Gutierrez’s case, months after the justices stopped his execution 20 minutes before he was to die by lethal injection.

Gutierrez was convicted in the 1998 stabbing death of Escolastica Harrison at her home in Brownsville, at the southern tip of the state.

Prosecutors said the murder 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 the banks.

Gutierrez has long requested DNA testing based on evidence such as Harrison’s nail scrapings, a stray hair around one of her fingers and several blood samples from her home.

His lawyers say there is no physical or forensic evidence linking him to the murder. Two others were also charged in this case.

Attorney Shawn Nolan said the Supreme Court’s action was a relief. By agreeing to the case and extending the stay of execution, “we move one step closer to finally conducting the DNA tests that will overturn Ruben’s wrongful conviction and death sentence,” he said.

Prosecutors said the request for DNA testing is a delaying tactic and that Gutierrez’s conviction rests on other evidence, including a confession in which he admitted planning the robbery and that he was in her home when she was killed.

Gutierrez was convicted under the Texas Party Act, which states that a person can be held liable for the actions of others if he aids or abets the commission of a crime. He has had several previous ones implementation dates in recent years has been postponed.