The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled for a Texas death row inmate who is seeking DNA testing to show he should be ineligible for execution.
The 6-3 decision in favor of Ruben Gutierrez gives him a potential path to have evidence tested that his lawyers say would help prove he was not responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman during a home robbery decades ago.
His lawyers have said there was no physical or forensic evidence connecting him to the killing and that he was not a major participant in the crime. Two others also were charged in the case.
Gutierrez’s lawyers argued that his case was similar to that of Rodney Reed, another longtime death row inmate in Texas who also won a round at the Supreme Court in his fight for DNA testing that he says would show he is innocent of murder.
A normal person would think the DNA was already checked before deciding for a death sentence.
And keeping someone in prison for decades!
In July, the high court granted Gutierrez a stay of execution 20 minutes before he was to receive a lethal injection.
How many times can that happen before it’s considered cruel and unusual punishment?
If it happens frequently, it’s not unusual
Considered by who?
6-3 decision. I can guess two out of the three who voted to kill him without evidence.
One of them certainly isn’t on the payroll of a billionaire, that’s for sure. /s
I was really curious who the third would be and I didn’t see it in the article, so I found the opinion and here’s the full list:
- Sotomayor wrote the majority option
- Barrett wrote a concurring opinion
- Alito dissented with Gorsuch
- Thomas separately dissented (and starts the dissent by agreeing with Alito, so he just wanted to be even more of a douche)
I’m surprised that the SCOTUS didn’t vote to kill him themselves.
Justices Thomas and Alito then both pulled out dual .45s and started blasting…
I wonder if they would use
“And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know my name is the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you.”
or
“The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness, for he is truly his brother’s keeper and the finder of lost children.”
when they start blasting.
Neither. They’d cite a precedent for self-defense against a violent prisoner and claim that he was about to attack.
Yep.
I feel,Ike Alito’s would be, “Say hello to my little friends!”
