The Supreme Court stays what would have been the first execution in Texas since February.Six execution have been stayed due to Covid 19. Ruben Gutierrez's lethal injection, scheduled for 6:00PM Tuesday, was halted an hour before by the High Court because the state no longer allows spiritual advisors in the death chamber. His attorney Shawn Nolan says "it's so incredibly important, especially to someone who is religious like my client that he be allowed to have that presence of a chaplain in the execution chamber at the time of death."Texas offered death row inmates Christian and Muslim chaplains in the past. Texas Seven inmate Patrick Murphy was denied a Buddhist chaplain ahead of his scheduled November 2019 execution and was denied. Murphy is still on death row. After that, the state changed its policy to allow spiritual advisors only in the witness rooms. Nolan says when Texas changed its policy, it violated the US constitution.The issue is not settled. Nolan says "this will not change the policy in Texas because the court did not reach the merits of that claim yet. They said we're going to stop this execution while this issue gets resolved and while it gets examined by the lower courts."Earlier this week, the US Fifth Circuit Court of appeals removed a stay a lower court had granted. Gutierrez was condemned for the September 1998 robbery and murder of an 85-year-old Brownsville mobile home park owner. Gutierrez and another man knew Escolatica Harrison kept a large amount of money in her home. She was stabbed to death 13 times with two screwdrivers. A co-defendant testified against Gutierrez and received life in prison.Nolan says Gutierrez has been asking for DNA evidence to be tested for years and the state has refused. He says they are hopeful they will still get the opportunity to test that evidence. Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz says Gutierrez was the ring leader in the crime. He says Gutierrez first gave a statement claiming he wasn't there. "When they're able to refute that statement, he gave a second statement in which he said I was there, I planned it but I didn't go in the house. When they were able to refute that statement Gutierrez gives a third statement in which he said he and the other man stabbed Mrs. Harrison to death."He called the murder cold-blooded. "He's litigated and relitigated this case, excuse the pun, to death."
Texas Death Row Inmate Gets 11th Hour Stay Of Execution
By Barbara SchwarzJun 17, 2020
