Justices to Consider Inmate’s DNA Request as Execution on Hold

The US Supreme Court agreed to take up a Texas death row inmate’s appeal challenging the state’s DNA testing statute as unconstitutional.

The justices on Friday granted the case of Ruben Gutierrez, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the 1998 death of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison. Gutierrez’s July 16 execution date was stayed at the last minute by the court earlier this summer while the justices considered whether to take up his appeal. It was the second time the justices had stopped his execution.

Gutierrez, who has so far been denied DNA testing, says Texas’s limits on obtaining potentially ...