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The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday denied a petition for a rehearing from Death Row inmate Ruben Gutierrez, who is scheduled for execution on July 16.
Gutierrez was convicted in 1999 of murdering 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in her trailer home in Brownsville on Sept. 5, 1998.
Gutierrez and two co-defendants wanted to rob the woman of about $600,000 they believed she had hidden in her home. Harrison did not trust banks.
Instead, they stole approximately $56,000 after repeatedly hitting her and stabbing her in the head multiple times.
In February, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied Gutierrez’s latest attempt to obtain post-conviction DNA testing.
He has made multiple attempts to obtain the testing dating back to 2010, all of which has been unsuccessful.
His initial appeal in 2008 was denied by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.
Gutierrez has contended that DNA testing would show he was not in Harrison’s home when she was murdered and that jurors would not have convicted him and sentenced him to death if this evidence had been available at trial.
He has sought testing of several blood samples from inside the home, a loose hair recovered from Harrison’s finger, Harrison’s nail scrapings, a blood sample from Harrison and a shirt belonging to her nephew that had blood on it.
Gutierrez, however, admitted to being involved in the robbery.
Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz said Wednesday that justice has been delayed for too long for Harrison’s family.
“At some point there has to be finality to all of Gutierrez’s countless appeals as Justice delayed is Justice denied,” Saenz said in a text to The Brownsville Herald.
