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Texas man who’s sought DNA testing to prove his innocence slated for execution in 1998 stabbing death of woman, 85

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A Texas man who’s long sought DNA testing, claiming it would help prove he wasn’t responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman, was scheduled to be executed Tuesday evening.

Ruben Gutierrez was condemned for the 1998 killing of Escolastica Harrison at her home in Brownsville in Texas’ southern tip. Prosecutors said the killing of the mobile home park manager and retired teacher was part of an attempt to steal more than $600,000 she had hidden in her home because of a mistrust of banks.

The inmate’s lethal injection was planned for Tuesday evening at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.

ruben-gutierrez.jpg
Photo provided by Texas Department of Criminal Justice shows death row inmate Ruben Gutierrez.

Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP


 

Gutierrez, 47, has long maintained he didn’t kill Harrison. His attorneys say there’s no physical or forensic evidence connecting him to the killing. Two others were also charged in the case.

Gutierrez’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the execution, arguing Texas has denied his right under state law to post-conviction DNA testing that would show he wouldn’t have been eligible for the death penalty.

His attorneys argue that various items recovered from the crime scene – including nail scrapings from Harrison, a loose hair wrapped around one of her fingers and various blood samples from within her home – have never been tested.

“Gutierrez faces not only the denial of (DNA testing) that he has repeatedly and consistently sought for over a decade, but moreover, execution for a crime he did not commit. No one has any interest in a wrongful execution,” Gutierrez’s attorneys wrote in their petition to the Supreme Court.

Prosecutors have said the request for DNA testing is a delay tactic and that Gutierrez was convicted on various pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he admitted to planning the robbery and that he was inside her home when she was killed.

Gutierrez was convicted under Texas’ law of parties, which says a person can be held liable for the actions of others if they assist or encourage the commission of a crime.

In their response to Gutierrez’s Supreme Court petition, the Texas Attorney General’s Office and the Cameron County District Attorney’s Office said state law does not provide “for postconviction DNA testing to show innocence of the death penalty and, even if it did, Gutierrez would not be entitled to it.”

“He has repeatedly failed to show he is entitled to postconviction DNA testing. Thus, his punishment is just, and his execution will be constitutional,” prosecutors said.

Gutierrez’s lawyers have also argued that his case is similar to another Texas death row inmate – Rodney Reed – whose case was sent back to a lower court after the Supreme Court in 2023 ruled he should be allowed to argue for DNA testing. Reed is still seeking DNA testing.

Lower courts have previously denied Gutierrez’s requests for DNA testing.

Last week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted against commuting Gutierrez’s death sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also rejected granting a 90-day reprieve.

Gutierrez has had several previous execution dates in recent years that have been delayed, including over issues related to having a spiritual adviser in the death chamber. In June 2020, Gutierrez was about an hour away from execution when he got a stay from the Supreme Court.

Authorities said Gutierrez befriended Harrison so he could rob her. Prosecutors said Harrison hid her money underneath a false floor in her bedroom closet.

Police charged three people in this case: Rene Garcia, Pedro Gracia and Gutierrez. Rene Garcia is serving a life sentence in a Texas prison while Pedro Gracia, who police said was the getaway driver, remains at large.

Gutierrez would be the third inmate put to death this year in Texas, the nation’s busiest capital punishment state, and the 10th in the U.S.



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Explosion at Louisville plant leaves 11 employees injured

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At least 11 employees were taken to hospitals and residents were urged to shelter in place on Tuesday after an explosion at a Louisville, Kentucky, business.

The Louisville Metro Emergency Services reported on social media a “hazardous materials incident” at 1901 Payne St., in Louisville. The address belongs to a facility operated by Givaudan Sense Colour, a manufacturer of food colorings for soft drinks and other products, according to officials and online records.

Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said emergency teams responded to the blast around 3 p.m. News outlets reported that neighbors heard what sounded like an explosion coming from the business. Overhead news video footage showed an industrial building with a large hole in its roof.

An image capture from aerial footage shows the aftermath of an explosion in Louisville, Kentucky, Nov. 12, 2024.
An image capture from aerial footage shows the aftermath of an explosion in Louisville, Kentucky, Nov. 12, 2024.

WLKY-TV


“The cause at this point of the explosion is unknown,” Greenberg said in a news conference. No one died in the explosion, he added.

Greenberg said officials spoke to employees inside the plant. “They have initially conveyed that everything was normal activity when the explosion occurred,” he said.

The Louisville Fire Department said in a post on the social platform X that multiple agencies were responding to a “large-scale incident.”

The Louisville Metro Emergency Services first urged people within a mile of the business to shelter in place, but that order was lifted in the afternoon. An evacuation order for the two surrounding blocks around the site of the explosion was still in place Tuesday afternoon. 



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Briefing held on classified documents leaker Jack Teixeira’s sentencing

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Briefing held on classified documents leaker Jack Teixeira’s sentencing – CBS News


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Joshua Levy, acting U.S. attorney for the District of Massachusetts, held a press conference Tuesday after the Pentagon classified documents leaker Jack Teixeira was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The former Air National guardsman admitted to illegally posting sensitive military information online.

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Aga Khan emerald, world’s most expensive green stone, fetches record $9 million at auction

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A rare square 37-carat emerald owned by the Aga Khan fetched nearly $9 million at auction in Geneva on Tuesday, making it the world’s most expensive green stone.

Sold by Christie’s, the Cartier diamond and emerald brooch, which can also be worn as a pendant, dethrones a piece of jewelry made by the fashion house Bulgari, which Richard Burton gave as a wedding gift to fellow actor Elizabeth Taylor, as the most precious emerald.

In 1960, Prince Sadruddin Aga Khan commissioned Cartier to set the emerald in a brooch with 20 marquise-cut diamonds for British socialite Nina Dyer, to whom he was briefly married.

Dyer then auctioned off the emerald to raise money for animals in 1969.

SWITZERLAND-LUXURY-JEWELLERY-AUCTION
A Christie’s employee poses with The Aga Khan Emerald, a cartier emerald and diamond brooch made with a square-shaped emerald of 37.00 carats, marquise-shaped diamonds, platinum and 18k yellow gold during a press preview in Geneva, on Nov. 7, 2024. 

FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP via Getty Images


By chance that was Christie’s very first such sale in Switzerland on the shores of Lake Geneva, with the emerald finding its way back to the 110th edition this year.

It was bought by jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels before passing a few years later into the hands of Harry Winston, nicknamed the “King of Diamonds.”

“Emeralds are hot right now, and this one ticks all the boxes,” said Christie’s EMEA Head of Jewellery Max Fawcett. “…We might see an emerald of this quality come up for sale once every five or six years.”

Also set with diamonds, the previous record-holder fetched $6.5 million at an auction of part of Hollywood legend Elizabeth Taylor’s renowned jewelry collection in New York.



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