The US Supreme Court temporarily halted a Texas man’s execution less than an hour before he was set to die by legal injection.
The Supreme Court’s three sentence order Tuesday gives Ruben Gutierrez more time to ask the high court to review his case.
Gutierrez and two others were convicted of the 1998 murder of Escolastica Harrison in Brownsville, Texas.
It’s the second time the Supreme Court has stopped Gutierrez’s execution. The justices in 2021 delayed his execution for the lower courts to consider whether he should be allowed to have a spiritual advisor in the execution chamber.
The latest stay is based on Gutierrez’s challenge to a Texas statute that limits post-conviction DNA testing. The US Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit said Gutierrez didn’t have the authority, or standing, to challenge the state law.
The court’s short order didn’t explain why the justices agreed to give Gutierrez more time to appeal his case and stays of execution at the high court are extremely rare. In recent terms, though, the justices have overturned a number of Fifth Circuit rulings based on the procedural doctrine of standing.
The case is Gutierrez v. Saenz, U.S., No. 23-7809.
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