Death row killer Ruben Gutierrez's execution halted 20 minutes before lethal injection amid DNA dispute

Death row killer Ruben Gutierrez's execution has been halted after the inmate's bid for DNA testing.

The state of Texas ordered Ruben Gutierrez - who was convicted over the heartless murder of an 85-year-old in 1998 in an effort to steal her retirement money - to be executed on Tuesday evening. However the Supreme Court granted a stay of execution 20 minutes before he was scheduled to face a lethal injection in a death chamber at Huntsville, Texas.

The inmate has long maintained that DNA testing would help prove he wasn't responsible for the fatal stabbing of an 85-year-old woman during a 1998 home robbery.

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The 47-year-old inmate was condemned for the 1998 stabbing of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison at her home in Brownsville. Gutierrez has long sought DNA testing that he claims would help prove he had no role in her death.

Gutierrez was found culpable for the murder of Escolastica Harrison, which occurred at her Brownsville home located deep within southern Texas. Prosecutors believed the retired teacher's murder was premeditated as part of a scheme to swipe more than $600,000 she had in her home due to a distrust of banks. The brief order from the high court said its stay of execution would remain in effect until the justices decide whether they should review his appeal request. If the court denies the request, the execution reprieve would automatically be lifted.

The 47-year-old Gutierrez has consistently denied killing Harrison, and his attorneys have claimed that there is no forensic or physical evidence connecting him to the crime.

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In the case, two other people were also charged. His defense team has filed an appeal with the US Supreme Court to stay the execution, claiming that Texas has infringed upon his right to post-conviction DNA testing that could demonstrate his ineligibility for the death penalty under state law.

They argue that a number of objects found at the scene of the crime, including as Harrison's nail clippings, a strand of hair that was wrapped around one of her fingers, and many blood samples taken inside her house, have never been examined. "Gutierrez confronts not just the refusal of the DNA testing he has been seeking for more than 10 years, but also the possibility of being executed for a crime he did not commit. In their appeal to the Supreme Court, Gutierrez's counsel stated that "no one has any interest in a wrongful execution."

The request for DNA testing, according to the prosecution, is a ploy to cause more time to elapse before Gutierrez is found guilty based on a number of pieces of evidence, including a confession in which he acknowledged arranging the robbery and admitting that he was at her home when she was slain. According to Texas' law of parties, which states that someone can be held accountable for the deeds of others if they aid or encourage the commission of a crime, Gutierrez was found guilty.