Entries tagged with “Ruben Gutierrez”

United States Supreme Court

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Innocence

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Oct 09, 2024

A ​“Meaningless Ritual”? U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Decide Whether Ruben Gutierrez Can Challenge Texas DNA Testing Procedures to Prove His Innocence

On Friday, October 4, the Supreme Court agreed to hear argu­ments in Gutierrez v. Saenz, a case regard­ing death-sen­tenced Texas pris­on­er Ruben Gutierrez’s abil­i­ty to sue the state for DNA test­ing in sup­port of his inno­cence claim. The Court had issued a stay to Mr. Gutierrez on July 16, just twen­ty min­utes before his sched­uled exe­cu­tion. Mr. Gutierrez was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1999 for the mur­der and rob­bery of an 85-year-old woman but has long main­tained his innocence.

Facts & Research

United States Supreme Court

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Jul 17, 2024

United States Supreme Court Issues Rare Last-Minute Stay for Ruben Gutierrez

The state of Texas was sched­uled to exe­cute Ruben Gutierrez (pic­tured) on July 16, 2024; how­ev­er, the United States Supreme Court issued a rare, last-minute stay of exe­cu­tion just 20 min­utes before he was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed by lethal injec­tion. This is the first stay of exe­cu­tion grant­ed by the Supreme Court since it issued a stay for Richard Glossip in 2023. In a peti­tion filed with the Supreme Court, attor­neys for Mr. Gutierrez asked the Court to inter­vene because Texas has denied…

Executions

Upcoming Executions

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Jul 16, 2024

Alabama and Texas are Set to Execute Prisoners This Week, Despite Serious Constitutional Questions in their Cases

On Thursday, July 18, 2024, the state of Alabama is sched­uled to exe­cute Keith Gavin (pic­tured left) by lethal injec­tion, despite court find­ings that his tri­al coun­sel was inef­fec­tive. Mr. Gavin was con­vict­ed and sen­tenced to death in 1999 for the shoot­ing death of a deliv­ery dri­ver. A non-unan­i­mous jury vot­ed 10 – 2 in favor of the death penal­ty for Mr. Gavin, and the tri­al court accept­ed the jury’s sen­tenc­ing out­come. During the penal­ty phase of tri­al, Mr. Gavin’s defense team did not present…

Facts & Research

Religion

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United States Supreme Court

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Executions Overview

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Sep 09, 2021

U.S. Supreme Court Stays Texas Execution, Agrees to Review Contours of the Right to Religious Exercise in the Execution Chamber

In an after-hours order issued on September 8, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court halt­ed Texas​’s planned exe­cu­tion of John Henry Ramirez and agreed to review his claim that the state’s refusal to allow his pas­tor to ​“lay hands” on him or pray audi­bly dur­ing the exe­cu­tion vio­lat­ed fed­er­al law and his First Amendment right to the free exer­cise of…

Facts & Research

Religion

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United States Supreme Court

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Upcoming Executions

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Sep 07, 2021

Condemned Prisoner Asks U.S. Supreme Court to Stay His Execution Unless Texas Corrections Officials Permit His Religious Advisor to ​‘Lay on Hands’ While He is Being Put to Death

Texas death-row pris­on­er John Ramirez (pic­tured) is ask­ing the United States Supreme Court to stay his September 8, 2021 exe­cu­tion, argu­ing that the state’s refusal to allow his pas­tor to pray out loud with him and lay hands on him while he is being exe­cut­ed vio­lates fed­er­al law and his First Amendment right to free exer­cise of…

Facts & Research

Crimes Punishable by Death

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Recent Legislative Activity

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May 07, 2021

Texas House of Representatives Passes Bill to Limit Death-Penalty Eligibility for Defendants Who Do Not Kill

In an over­whelm­ing bipar­ti­san vote, the Texas House of Representatives has passed a bill that ends death-penal­ty lia­bil­i­ty under the state’s con­tro­ver­sial ​“law of par­ties” for felony accom­plices who nei­ther kill nor intend­ed that a killing take place and were minor par­tic­i­pants in the con­duct that led to the death of the vic­tim. Currently, Texas law makes any par­tic­i­pant in a felony crim­i­nal­ly liable for the acts of every­one else involved in the crime, irre­spec­tive of how…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Apr 05, 2021

Federal Court Approves DNA Testing for Man Who Was Spared Execution by Texas’s Refusal to Allow Religious Adviser in Execution Chamber

A fed­er­al dis­trict court has ruled that Texas uncon­sti­tu­tion­al­ly denied DNA test­ing to a death-row pris­on­er who is alive today only because of a last-minute stay of exe­cu­tion grant­ed because the state refused to allow his reli­gious advis­er to accom­pa­ny him in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber. In a 26-page rul­ing issued on March 23, 2021, Judge Hilda Tagle of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas paved the way for Ruben Gutierrez (pic­tured) to obtain DNA test­ing that…

Policy Issues

Innocence

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Representation

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Upcoming Executions

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Jun 05, 2020

As Federal Litigation Continues, Ruben Gutierrez Seeks Stay of Execution, Citing Concerns About Pandemic

Texas death-row pris­on­er Ruben Gutierrez (pic­tured) has asked the Texas state courts to stay his exe­cu­tion because of the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic as fed­er­al lit­i­ga­tion con­tin­ues on his efforts to obtain DNA test­ing and to require Texas to per­mit him to have a chap­lain present in the exe­cu­tion cham­ber if his execution…

Executions

Upcoming Executions

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Oct 24, 2019

Courts Grant Stays of Execution on Procedural Grounds in Two Cases Raising Significant Guilt-Related Questions

Courts in Texas and Florida have grant­ed stays of exe­cu­tion to two men who faced immi­nent exe­cu­tion despite seri­ous ques­tions as to their involve­ment in the mur­ders for which they were sen­tenced to death. On October 22, 2019, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (CCA) stayed the exe­cu­tion of Ruben Gutierrez (pic­tured, left), which had been sched­uled for October 30. The fol­low­ing day, the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida…