Texas Man Faces Execution for 1998 Murder of Elderly Woman for Money

HOUSTON– A Texas man who has long sought DNA testing claiming it would help prove he was not responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman decades ago, was scheduled to be executed Tuesday night.

Ruben Gutiérrez was convicted of the 1998 murder of Escolástica Harrison in her home in Brownsville, in far south Texas. Prosecutors said the murder of the trailer park manager and retired teacher was part of an attempt to steal more than $600,000 that she had hidden in her home because of distrust of banks.

The inmate’s lethal injection was planned for Tuesday night at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

Gutierrez, 47, has long maintained that he did not kill Harrison. His lawyers say there is no physical or forensic evidence linking him to the murder. Two others were also charged in the case.

Gutierrez’s lawyers asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the execution, arguing that Texas denied his right under state law to post-conviction DNA testing that would show he was ineligible for the death penalty.

His lawyers argue that several items recovered from the crime scene — including Harrison’s fingernail clippings, a loose strand of hair wrapped around one of his fingers and several blood samples from inside his home — were never tested.

“Gutierrez faces not only the denial (of DNA testing) that he has repeatedly and consistently sought for more than a decade, but, in addition, execution for a crime he did not commit. No one has an interest in an unjust execution,” Gutierrez’s lawyers wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court.

Prosecutors said the request for DNA testing is a delay tactic and that Gutierrez was convicted based on multiple pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he admitted to planning the robbery and that he was inside her home when she was killed. Gutierrez was convicted under Texas party law, which says a person can be held responsible for the actions of others if they aid or encourage the commission of a crime.

In their response to Gutierrez’s petition to the Supreme Court, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office said state law does not provide for “post-conviction DNA testing to show innocence of the sentence of death and, even if he did, Gutierrez would not be entitled to it.”

“He has repeatedly failed to demonstrate that he is entitled to post-conviction DNA testing. Therefore, his punishment is just and his execution will be constitutional,” prosecutors said.

Gutierrez’s lawyers also argued that his case is similar to that of another death row inmate in Texas – Rodney Reed – whose case was sent back to a lower court after the Supreme Court in 2023 ruled that he should be allowed to defend DNA testing. Reed is still seeking DNA testing.

Lower courts have previously denied Gutierrez’s requests for DNA testing.

Last week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole voted against commuting Gutierrez’s death sentence to a lesser sentence. Members also rejected granting a 90-day reprieve.

Gutierrez has had several previous execution dates that have been postponed in recent years, including about questions related to having a spiritual advisor in the death chamber. In June 2020, Gutierrez was about an hour away execution when he obtained a stay from the Supreme Court.

Authorities said Gutierrez befriended Harrison so he could rob her. Prosecutors said Harrison hid the money under a false floor in the bedroom closet.

Police charged three people in this case: Rene Garcia, Pedro Gracia and Gutierrez. Rene Garcia is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison, while Pedro Gracia, who police said was the getaway driver, remains at large.

Gutierrez would be the third inmate sentenced to death this year in Texas, the state with the highest death penalty in the country, and the tenth in the United States.

___

Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: