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As Ruben Gutierrez’s scheduled execution on Tuesday afternoon draws closer, his appellate attorneys have asked the United States Supreme Court for a stay of execution.
Gutierrez, 57, was convicted in 1999 of murdering 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in her trailer home in Brownsville on Sept. 5, 1998.
He has unsuccessfully sought post-conviction DNA testing in state and federal appellate courts for approximately 15 years. Most recently, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied his request for a rehearing on his petition and U.S. District Judge Rolando Olvera dismissed his petition in Brownsville federal court.
And the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted last Friday to deny his application for clemency.
Gutierrez first submitted his application for a stay of execution to Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito on June 25.
Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz responded in opposition on July 9 and Gutierrez responded to Saenz on July 11.
Gutierrez’s appellate attorneys contend in the reply that he is entitled to new DNA testing. They have repeatedly sought the DNA testing because the appellate attorneys say that while Gutierrez was involved in the robbery targeting Harrison, he was never actually in her home when the murder occurred.
Gutierrez and two other suspects targeted Harrison — who did not trust banks — because they believe she had $600,000 in cash in her home. They made off with $56,000 after Harrison was brutally stabbed and beaten to death.
“Throughout his trial and in the proceedings since, Gutierrez has maintained that he did not kill Escolastica Harrison, and that he had no knowledge that others were going to assault or kill her,” Gutierrez’s response to Saenz stated. “None of the items collected during the investigation of this case has ever been subjected to DNA testing.
“Absent a stay and grant of certiorari, Gutierrez faces not only the denial of process that he has repeatedly and consistently sought for over a decade, but moreover, execution for a crime he did not commit. No one has any interest in a wrongful execution.”
The brief further asks the Supreme Court to vacate the Fifth Circuit’s adverse judgment against Gutierrez and remand it for further proceedings.
Saenz’s response, however, said that Gutierrez’s claim that he was not in the home when Harrison was murdered “is undermined by his own words.”
The response states a prior case between Gutierrez and prosecutors that includes “Gutierrez’s second statement to the police in which he admitted planning the ‘rip off’ of Ms. Harrison, and his third statement in which he admitted to having lied to the police previously and explained that he was inside Ms. Harrison’s home when she was killed and that he gathered Ms. Harrison’s cash.”
Furthermore, Saenz’s response calls Gutierrez’s claim to the Supreme Court an “abusive delay” while asking that Gutierrez’s application for a stay of execution be denied.
It’s not immediately clear whether the Supreme Court will take up the application.
Executions in Texas are scheduled to take place at or after 6 p.m.
Here’s the latest update:
