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

⚑ | Report an error, an omission, a typo; suggest a story or a new angle to an existing story; submit a piece, a comment; recommend a resource; contact the webmaster, contact us: deathpenaltynews@gmail.com.

Opposed to Capital Punishment? Help us keep this blog up and running! DONATE!

"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted." -- Oscar Wilde

Former FedEx driver sentenced to death for killing 7-year-old girl after delivery at her Texas home

DALLAS (AP) — A former FedEx driver was sentenced to death on Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to killing a 7-year-old girl he took from her Texas home while delivering a Christmas gift. Jurors in a Fort Worth courtroom decided on Tanner Horner's punishment after hearing about a month of testimony and evidence that included audio of Athena Strand's last moments from inside his delivery van. Horner, 34, pleaded guilty to capital murder last month in the 2022 killing just as his trial began. Athena's body was found two days after she was reported missing from her home in the rural town of Paradise, near Fort Worth.

South Dakota | Latest appeal from state's lone death row inmate denied

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit has rejected the latest appeal from Briley Piper, the only person on death row in South Dakota. In March 2000, Briley Piper, along with co-defendants Elijah Page and Darrell Hoadley, conspired to burglarize the Lawrence County home of 19-year-old Chester Poage before abducting and murdering him by beating, stabbing, and stoning in a remote area. Piper was subsequently arrested, convicted of murder, and sentenced to death, while his accomplices received either a death sentence—carried out against Page in 2007—or a sentence of life imprisonment without parole.

20 Minutes to Death: Witness to the Last Execution in France

The following document is a firsthand account of the final moments of Hamida Djandoubi, a convicted murderer executed by guillotine at Marseille’s Baumettes Prison on September 10, 1977. The record—dated September 9—was written by Monique Mabelly, a judge appointed by the state to witness the proceedings. Djandoubi’s execution would ultimately be the last carried out in France before capital punishment was abolished in 1981. At the time, President Valéry Giscard d'Estaing—who had publicly voiced his "deep aversion to the death penalty" prior to his election—rejected Djandoubi’s appeal for clemency. Choosing to let "justice take its course," the President allowed the execution to proceed, just as he had in two previous cases during his term: Christian Ranucci , executed on July 28, 1976 and Jérôme Carrein , executed on June 23, 1977. Hamida Djandoubi , a Tunisian national, was sentenced to death for killing his former lover, Elisabeth Bousquet. He was execu...

South Carolina | Inmate who believes he’s died repeatedly can’t be executed, judge rules

SPARTANBURG — A 59-year-old man sentenced to death for killing a state trooper in Greenville County in 2000 can’t be executed because of a mental illness that’s left him incoherent and believing he’s immortal, a Circuit Court judge has ruled. John Richard Wood is the first condemned inmate in South Carolina found not competent to be executed since the state restarted capital punishment in September 2024. The seven executions since then include three men who chose to die by firing squad — the latest in November. Wood, convicted 24 years ago, was among death row inmates in line to receive a death warrant after exhausting their regular appeals.

Idaho eyes restart of death row executions as firing squad draws near

BOISE, Idaho — Idaho’s prison system has nearly completed execution chamber upgrades to carry out the death penalty by firing squad as the state’s lead method and will have a team of riflemen ready to go by the time a state law takes effect this summer. As part of the transition, the Idaho Department of Correction hopes to limit participation by its officers as the shooting of condemned people in prison to death is prioritized over lethal injection. Toward that effort, prisoner leadership sought to implement a push-button technology to avoid needing IDOC workers to pull the triggers.

Will the US Supreme Court end nitrogen gas executions?

When President Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, he directed his administration to “ restor[e] the death penalty .” His embrace of capital punishment helped fuel a surge in executions at the state level last year, as I previously reported , and led the Justice Department to produce a report on “strengthening” the federal death penalty, which was released late last month. In the report, the Justice Department defended the use of pentobarbital – a powerful sedative – for lethal injections, criticizing the Biden administration’s determination that it may cause “unnecessary pain and suffering.” Nevertheless, citing ongoing legal challenges to pentobarbital use and related problems obtaining the drugs used in lethal injections, the DOJ recommended expanding the list of federal execution methods by adding firing squads, electrocution, and lethal gas.

Arizona | Man who murdered pastor crucifixion style requests plea deal after parents killed in plane crash

Adam Sheafe, the California man who admitted to killing a New River, Arizona, pastor in a crucifixion-style attack, has asked prosecutors to offer him a plea deal that would result in a natural life sentence rather than the death penalty he had previously sought. Advisory council attorneys representing Sheafe sent a formal plea offer to prosecutors this week, about two weeks after his father and stepmother died in a plane crash at Marana Airport on April 8, according to 12 News. Sheafe, 51, is charged with first-degree murder in the death of William Schonemann, 76, pastor of New River Bible Church, who was found dead inside his home last April.

China | Man sentenced to death for murder executed in Yunnan

Tian Yongming, who was initially sentenced for a series of violent crimes and then had his sentence changed to death early this year, has been executed in Yunnan province following approval from China's top court. The execution was carried out by the Intermediate People's Court in Yuxi, Yunnan, on Tuesday, with local prosecutors supervising the process. Before the execution, Tian was allowed to meet with his family members. The case dates back to September 1996, when Tian was sentenced to nine years in prison for the rape and attempted murder of his sister-in-law. After his release on July 15, 2002, he plotted revenge against the woman. On the night of Nov 13, 2002, he broke into her home armed with a knife.

American Fugitive Flees to Italy hoping to Escape the Death Penalty

American Murder Suspect Cut Off His Ankle Bracelet and Fled to Italy to Escape the Death Penalty Lee Mongerson Gilley Flew From Houston to Milan on Two False Identities. He Was Caught the Moment He Landed. It reads like the opening of a thriller. A man under electronic surveillance in Houston, suspected of killing his pregnant wife, cuts off his ankle bracelet, boards a flight to Canada under a false identity, transfers to a second flight to Italy under a second false identity, and lands at Milan Malpensa with a single objective: to place himself beyond the reach of Texas justice and its death penalty. The plan failed at the first step on Italian soil. Lee Mongerson Gilley, 39, an American software engineer wanted in the United States on suspicion of murdering his ex-wife in October 2024, was identified and detained the moment he arrived at Malpensa. He had cut off his electronic monitoring bracelet in Houston, flown first to Canada using one set of false documents, and then to Italy u...

Florida executes James Ernest Hitchcock

STARKE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida man convicted of beating and choking his brother’s 13-year-old stepdaughter to death nearly 50 years ago was executed Thursday evening. James Ernest Hitchcock, 70, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. following a lethal injection at Florida State Prison near Starke. He was convicted of the July 1976 killing of Cynthia Driggers. The curtain to the death chamber opened promptly at the 6 p.m. execution time. Hitchcock’s entire body was covered in a sheet up to his head. He stared at the ceiling as the team warden made a call, then gave his final statement.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog