The United States Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended the execution of a man sentenced to death for the murder of an octogenarian in 1998, in Texas (south).
The execution of Ruben Gutierrez, aged 47, sentenced to death in 1999 for the murder of Escolastica Harrison, aged 85, following a robbery with two accomplices, had already been suspended on several occasions in recent years, including in 2020, by the Supreme Court. Court.
Gutierrez claims to be innocent, asking for more than 10 years for the analysis of DNA samples collected at the scene of the crime.
The convict said he did not enter the victim's motorhome, unlike his accomplices, of whom he was unaware of their intention to stab the woman to death.
After the last appeal to the Texas court was rejected, the lawyers appealed to the US Supreme Court.
The court will assess whether to accept the appeal, which should take several months. If you decide not to accept the appeal, the suspension is automatically lifted and the execution can be scheduled again, he noted.
"Now that the court has intervened to suspend this execution, we hope to be able to perform DNA testing to prove that Gutierrez should not be executed, not now or in the future," lawyer Shawn Nolan said in a statement.
One of Ruben Gutierrez's accomplices pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence and the other, released on bail, is on the run.
In total, 24 executions were carried out in the United States last year.
The death penalty has been abolished in 23 of the 50 US states. Six (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee) observe a moratorium on executions under the governor's decision.
