WORDS TO HEED: FROM OUR POST ON KEVIN COOPER'S APPLICATION FOR POST-CONVICTION DNA TESTING (CALIFORNIA)...(WISE WORDS THAT APPLY IN ALL THE STATES WHICH STILL HAVE THE DEATH PENALTY.)
"Blogger/extraordinaire Jeff Gamso's blunt, unequivocal, unforgettable message to the powers that be in California: "JUST TEST THE FUCKING DNA." (Oh yes, Gamso raises, as he does in many of his posts, an important philosophical question: This post is headed: "What is truth, said jesting Pilate.")..."So what's the harm? What, exactly, are they scared of? Don't we want the truth?"
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PASSAGE OF THE DAY "Gutierrez, 43, was sentenced to death for the 1998 stabbing and beating death of 85-year-old Escolastica Cuellar Harrison during a home robbery. Harrison lived in the mobile home park she owned and had about $600,000 in her house at the time of her death, according to court records. Gutierrez, who knew Harrison through her nephew, was accused of the fatal robbery along with two other men, Rene Garcia and Pedro Gracia, according to court filings. Garcia, who pleaded guilty, is serving a life sentence; Gracia was released from jail before his trial on a $75,000 bond and has been wanted for more than 20 years. At the time of Harrison’s death, police preserved fingernail scrapings, a hair in her hand and blood stains, but DNA was never tested. Gutierrez has long fought to test the evidence, claiming it can prove he was not Harrison’s killer. But Cameron County prosecutors have argued that because there may have been multiple killers, tested evidence that didn't match him still wouldn’t mark him as innocent. The appeals court agreed Friday, noting that in Texas, a defendant can be sentenced to death for acting as an accomplice in a capital murder. “The problem for Gutierrez is that he was convicted without jurors needing to decide whether he was the actual murderer or an accomplice,” the panel of judges on the circuit court wrote in their Friday ruling. “A search for DNA on the victim’s clothing and elsewhere would not reasonably lead to evidence that would exclude Gutierrez as an accomplice.
STORY: “US Supreme Court halts Texas execution of Ruben Gutierrez during legal fight over religious adviser’s access to death chamber,” by reporter Jolie McCullough, published by The Texas Tribune on June 16, 2020.
SUB-HEADING: Texas; "Gutierrez has long fought for DNA testing he says could prove his innocence in a 1998 Brownsville murder and home robbery. But the high court's ruling centered on Texas prison officials' recent decision to keep religious advisers out of the execution room."
GIST: "The U.S. Supreme Court halted the Texas execution of Ruben Gutierrez on Tuesday, just over an hour before he was scheduled to die.
Gutierrez was convicted in 1999 of killing of an elderly woman during a Brownsville home robbery, and has spent the last decade fighting for DNA testinghe claims could prove his innocence. But the high court stopped his execution because of a new appeal pushing for a religious adviser to be allowed in the death chamber.
Last week, a federal district judge stayed, or stopped, Gutierrez's execution while she reviewed his latest appeal. In it, Gutierrez said the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's new policy banning religious advisers in the execution room with inmates violated his religious freedom.
Last year, TDCJ changed its policy that allowed prison chaplains in the chamber after the Supreme Court stopped another execution after a claim of religious discrimination. That inmate was Buddhist and wanted an adviser of his faith, but TDCJ only has Christian and Muslim clerics on staff and said outside advisers could not enter the room for security reasons.
On Friday, the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals tossed the district judge's stay, saying Gutierrez was unlikely to succeed on the appeal. But the nation's high court again stopped the execution just before 5 p.m. Tuesday, and told the district judge to swiftly order a ruling in the appeal.
"The District Court should promptly determine, based on whatever evidence the parties provide, whether serious security problems would result if a prisoner facing execution is permitted to choose the spiritual adviser the prisoner wishes to have in his immediate presence during the execution," the Tuesday order said.
The order said the stay would be lifted if the federal judge rejects Gutierrez's appeal, but if that does not occur Tuesday, the execution would need to be reset at least 90 days in the future. One of Gutierrez's lawyers told The Texas Tribune he did not expect a ruling from the district court Tuesday night.
Gutierrez's latest appeals to the high court and Gov. Greg Abbott also asked for a halt to his execution because the coronavirus continues spreading in the state. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals began delaying executionsbecause of the coronavirus in March — citing “the current health crisis and the enormous resources needed to address that emergency.” Gutierrez filed a similar motion to stay his execution earlier this month, but his lawyers told The Texas Tribune that the court denied it without any explanation.
At the Huntsville Unit, where inmates are executed, there were dozens of prisoners and multiple employees confirmed to have active cases of the coronavirus as of Saturday, according to Texas Department of Criminal Justice reports.
The city of Huntsville, with seven prisons, has also had recent infection surges. Gutierrez’s attorneys argued in their filing that questions about staffing availability during the health crisis, close contact between employees and execution witnesses, the requirement that people to travel to an infected town and the lawyers' limited ability to conduct interviews for final appeals should have led the court to delay the execution.
The city of Huntsville, with seven prisons, has also had recent infection surges. Gutierrez’s attorneys argued in their filing that questions about staffing availability during the health crisis, close contact between employees and execution witnesses, the requirement that people to travel to an infected town and the lawyers' limited ability to conduct interviews for final appeals should have led the court to delay the execution.
"No execution has occurred in Texas since the pandemic emerged, and under prevailing conditions it would be dangerous to change that now," attorneys Shawn Nolan and Richard Rogers wrote in a letter to Abbott on Monday.
Gutierrez, 43, was sentenced to death for the 1998 stabbing and beating death of 85-year-old Escolastica Cuellar Harrison during a home robbery. Harrison lived in the mobile home park she owned and had about $600,000 in her house at the time of her death, according to court records.
Gutierrez, who knew Harrison through her nephew, was accused of the fatal robbery along with two other men, Rene Garcia and Pedro Gracia, according to court filings. Garcia, who pleaded guilty, is serving a life sentence; Gracia was released from jail before his trial on a $75,000 bond and has been wanted for more than 20 years. At the time of Harrison’s death, police preserved fingernail scrapings, a hair in her hand and blood stains, but DNA was never tested.
Gutierrez has long fought to test the evidence, claiming it can prove he was not Harrison’s killer. But Cameron County prosecutors have argued that because there may have been multiple killers, tested evidence that didn't match him still wouldn’t mark him as innocent. The appeals court agreed Friday, noting that in Texas, a defendant can be sentenced to death for acting as an accomplice in a capital murder.“
“The problem for Gutierrez is that he was convicted without jurors needing to decide whether he was the actual murderer or an accomplice,” the panel of judges on the circuit court wrote in their Friday ruling. “A search for DNA on the victim’s clothing and elsewhere would not reasonably lead to evidence that would exclude Gutierrez as an accomplice.
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The entire decision can be read at:
https://www.texastribune.org/2020/06/16/texas-execution-ruben-gutierrez/?utm_source=The+Marshall+Project+Newsletter&utm_campaign=cb9a5447cf-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2020_06_17_12_00&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_5e02cdad9d-cb9a5447cf-174331221
PUBLISHER'S NOTE: I am monitoring this case/issue. Keep your eye on the Charles Smith Blog for reports on developments. The Toronto Star, my previous employer for more than twenty incredible years, has put considerable effort into exposing the harm caused by Dr. Charles Smith and his protectors - and into pushing for reform of Ontario's forensic pediatric pathology system. The Star has a "topic" section which focuses on recent stories related to Dr. Charles Smith. It can be found at: http://www.thestar.com/topic/charlessmith. Information on "The Charles Smith Blog Award"- and its nomination process - can be found at: http://smithforensic.blogspot.com/2011/05/charles-smith-blog-award-nominations.html Please send any comments or information on other cases and issues of interest to the readers of this blog to: hlevy15@gmail.com. Harold Levy: Publisher: The Charles Smith Blog;
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FINAL WORD: (Applicable to all of our wrongful conviction cases): "Whenever there is a wrongful conviction, it exposes errors in our criminal legal system, and we hope that this case — and lessons from it — can prevent future injustices."
Lawyer Radha Natarajan:
Executive Director: New England Innocence Project;
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