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In Texas, the death sentence of an accused was suspended before he could be sentenced to death. The US Supreme Court has stayed the death sentence of a man after hearing his appeal at the last minute. 47-year-old Ruben Gutierrez was sentenced to death for his involvement in the murder of an elderly man in 1998. He was to be hanged by lethal injection in Texas on Tuesday, when a court heard Ruben's appeal at the last minute and put a temporary stay on the sentence.
Ruben Gutierrez is accused of conspiring with two others to murder Escolastica Harrison in 1998. Harrison was the elderly manager of a mobile home park in the city of Brownsville, on the border with Mexico. According to court documents, the elderly woman was beaten and stabbed to death by three men.
One of the accused has pleaded guilty and is serving a life sentence in prison. The other accused, Ruben Gutierrez, has pleaded innocent from the start and demanded an investigation into DNA samples taken from the crime scene.
What is the whole matter?
An elderly woman worked as a manager at a mobile home park in Brownsville, near Mexico. According to the information, the elderly woman did not trust the bank and kept the cash with herself.
The woman had about six lakh dollars kept in her house. With the intention of stealing this amount, three people conspired to kill Harrison. Ruben Gutierrez is accused of being involved in the murder. Gutierrez says he is innocent and did not enter the mobile home that day. He did not know that the other two persons had the intention to kill Harrison.
Demand for DNA testing
Accused Ruben Gutierrez and his lawyers have been demanding testing of DNA collected from the crime scene for the past 10 years. Prosecutors have argued that there is no physical evidence of Gutierrez's presence at the scene. And he confessed to the crime when police threatened to arrest his wife and children.
Gutierrez has also appealed to the lower court to stay his sentence. After the appeal was rejected by the lower court, he approached the High Court. Where the sentence has been temporarily stayed till the case is considered on Tuesday.
The sentence has already been suspended
This is not the first time. Gutierrez's execution may have been stayed shortly before he was to be sentenced. In 2020, a court stayed his execution after Texas authorities rejected his last request for Puja to be present in his punishment chamber.
The accused's lawyer said that we hope that now the court has taken steps to stay the sentence. Now we can complete the DNA test to prove that Gutierrez is innocent.