Overview

• In a 6-3 ruling, the justices held that Ruben Gutierrez has standing to sue under Texas’s post-conviction DNA testing statute.
• Gutierrez’s lawyers argue there is no physical or forensic evidence linking him to the fatal stabbing of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison.
• Justice Sonia Sotomayor cited the court’s earlier Rodney Reed decision, writing that the two cases are “indistinguishable.”
• Gutierrez has had multiple execution dates stayed, including a last-minute reprieve minutes before a scheduled lethal injection.
• Legal experts say the ruling could prompt new post-conviction DNA challenges in capital-punishment cases nationwide.