The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a Texas death row inmate can challenge the constitutionality of the state’s DNA testing law in his bid to have DNA evidence from his case tested.
In a 6-3 decision, the court ruled in favor of Ruben Gutierrez, who sued Cameron County District Attorney Luis Saenz in a bid to force his office to test DNA evidence the inmate said will prove he did not kill 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison. Prosecutors said Gutierrez attacked Harrison and stabbed her with a screwdriver in 1998, after he and two other men robbed her mobile home in Brownsville to take roughly $600,000 in cash.
