Update: On July 16, the U.S. Supreme Court granted Ruben Gutierrez a stay of execution just 20 minutes before he was scheduled to die by lethal injection. The stay gives the high court time to decide whether to take up Gutierrez’s case to allow post-conviction DNA testing.
Less than a week after an NPR investigation revealed glaring problems with the previously secret supplier of Texas’ lethal injection drugs, the state plans to execute a man on Tuesday evening who has maintained his innocence for more than 20 years.
Ruben Gutierrez was convicted under Texas’ so-called law of parties for the 1998 murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison. Harrison was killed during a robbery of the Brownsville home she shared with her nephew. Shortly after, three men were arrested in connection with the crime: Pedro Gracia, Rene Garcia, and Ruben Gutierrez, who was friends with Harrison’s nephew.
