Supreme Court to Consider Texas Death Row Inmate’s Appeal

The U.S. Supreme Court announced on July 25 that it will consider on Sept. 30 whether to hear the death row appeal of Ruben Gutierrez, who was convicted in the 1998 murder of a mobile home park manager in Texas. Mr. Gutierrez denies guilt and argues that DNA testing of the physical evidence would clear him. He says a federal appeals court erred when it added additional conditions to the Supreme Court’s existing precedent governing post-conviction DNA testing. The court stated that it will consider the petition for certiorari, or review, in the case of Gutierrez v. Saenz at its next scheduled private judicial conference at the end of its current summer recess....