Supreme Court Sides With Capital Defendant Seeking DNA Testing (1)

The US Supreme Court sided with a Texas death row inmate seeking DNA evidence to overturn his sentence.

In a 6-3 ruling Thursday by Justice Sonia Sotomayor, the court said federal courts can review Ruben Gutierrez’s challenge to the prosecution’s refusal to conduct DNA testing. Such testing isn’t generally required post-conviction, but a Texas state law makes it available in certain cases.

A “state-created right to postconviction procedures can, in some circumstances, beget yet other rights to procedures,” Sotomayor wrote.

Gutierrez was convicted and sentenced to death for his role in the 1998 robbery and murder of Escolastica Harrison. He is seeking DNA evidence to show he’s not eligible for the death penalty, not to show his innocence of the underlying robbery.

The justices halted Gutierrez’s July 16 execution at the last minute to allow them to consider his appeal. It was the second time they’d stopped his execution.

Writing in dissent, Justice Samuel Alito said the “decision’s only practical effect will be to aid and abet Gutierrez’s efforts to run out the clock on the execution of his sentence.” He was joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.

Despite a conservative majority that’s not been friendly to capital claims, the case is the second high court win this term for a death row inmate. In February, the justices ordered a new trial for Richard Glossip after Oklahoma’s attorney general said the state could no longer stand behind his conviction.

The case is Gutierrez v. Saenz, U.S., No. 23-7809, 6/26/25.