Death Warrant Update — Courts Halt Executions in Tennessee, Pennsylvania; Vacate Stay in Texas

NEWS (6/​12/​20) — Texas: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit lift­ed a stay of exe­cu­tion the fed­er­al dis­trict court had grant­ed to Ruben Gutierrez. The action reac­ti­vates the death war­rant sched­ul­ing Mr. Gutierrez’s exe­cu­tion for June 16. 

Gutierrez had sought the stay to per­mit DNA test­ing that he says will show that he did not com­mit the killing that put him on death row and to be per­mit­ted the pres­ence of a chap­lain in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber if the exe­cu­tion were to be car­ried out. His lawyers will be ask­ing the Supreme Court to issue a stay of exe­cu­tion to review these issues.

NEWS (6/​12/​20) — Tennessee: The Tennessee Supreme Court has grant­ed Byron Black​’s motion to delay his sched­uled October 8, 2020 exe­cu­tion because of the con­tin­u­ing impact of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic on his lawyers’ abil­i­ty to inves­ti­gate issues in his case and to pre­pare legal plead­ings and a clemen­cy peti­tion. The court resched­uled Black’s exe­cu­tion for April 8, 2021.

NEWS (6/​12/​20) — The Pike County, Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas has stayed the June 22 exe­cu­tion of Eric Frein to per­mit him to pur­sue post-con­vic­tion appeals that are avail­able to all con­vict­ed defen­dants under Pennsylvania law. 

Pennsylvania Department of Corrections Secretary John Wetzel had issued the legal­ly pre­ma­ture Notice of Execution on May 11, as required under Pennsylvania’s 1995 auto­mat­ic death war­rant statute. More than 400 death war­rants have been issued under the statute, seek­ing to exe­cute pris­on­ers before they have com­plet­ed the appeals process. The courts rou­tine­ly stay those executions.

See Upcoming Executions and Outcomes of 2020 Death Warrants