Texas death row inmate Ruben Gutierrez granted stay of execution after last-minute change of attorney

A last-minute change of attorney has netted a stay of execution for the Brownsville killer convicted of murdering an 85-year-old woman with a screwdriver nearly two decades ago.

Ruben Gutierrez, who has long professed his innocence, was scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 12 - the 20-year anniversary of his arrest. But last month, his existing attorney asked to be removed from the case, and the new lawyers who took over realized they needed more time.

"Through no fault of his own, Mr. Gutierrez is before this Court less than a month before his scheduled execution with counsel who were appointed to his case within the past ten days," his new lawyers wrote in a court filing.

The Cameron County man was sent to death row following the 1998 slaying of trailer park owner Escolastica Harrison. The elderly woman didn't trust banks, so she'd stowed roughly $600,000 of cash inside her home.

Gutierrez knew Harrison through her nephew and, according to prosecutors, befriended her just to rob her. In September 1998, authorities say he teamed up with two accomplices - Pedro and Rene Garcia - in hopes of carrying out their plan and making off with the cash.

Afterward, Harrison was found face-down in a pool of blood, severely beaten and stabbed repeatedly.

After talking to Pedro and Rene Garcia, police zeroed in on Gutierrez as the killer. When investigators questioned him, Gutierrez offered different versions of events, at one point admitting he was present but not the killer during the deadly robbery.

He fought his appeals for nearly 20 years, and in April the trial court signed off on a September execution date.

But then in July, his attorney, Margaret Schmucker, filed a motion asking to be removed from the case. For one, she said, she didn't have the relevant experience needed to keep handling the claims, which would likely include a civil rights lawsuit demanding DNA testing.

On top of that, by the time her client received an execution date, Schmucker had been disqualified from handling court-appointed work in the Fifth Circuit as the result of what court papers describe as "rude and unprofessional communications with court staff" and she instead chalked up to a disagreement over getting paid.

"It's not about the quality of the representation - it's about a dispute with the clerks," she said. "No one has ever complained about the quality of my representation."

At first, the state fought Schmucker on her request to be removed from the case. But then on Aug. 6, a federal judge agreed to appoint other attorneys.

With less than 40 days left till the scheduled death date, the new legal counsel soon asked for a stay of execution. A federal judge in the Southern District of Texas granted it on Aug. 22.

The state quickly appealed that decision, arguing that the federal district judge did not have jurisdiction, that the new attorneys would just be rehashing old claims, and that they didn't really need more time.

The new attorneys for Gutierrez did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

With the Brownsville man's death date off the calendar, Troy Clark from Smith County is the next to die. He's the ninth execution scheduled in Texas this year.

Source: chron.com, Keri Blakinger, August 30, 2018

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