U.S Supreme Court rules that death row prisoner has the right to have evidence tested
A recent article has reported that the U.S Supreme Court has ruled that in a 6-3 decision that Ruben Gutierrez, who was sentenced to death, has the right to have evidence from his case tested under the Due Process Clause.
Mr Gutierrez was sentenced to death for the murder of 85 year old Escolastica Harrison in 1998 during a robbery, and has been trying for 15 years to get the evidence in his case tested, claiming it would prove he wasn’t in the victim’s house the night of his murder.
The courts denied his motions because they reasoned that even if his DNA was not found on the murder weapons, he would still be culpable under the state’s Law of Parties, which holds that a person can be criminally responsible for a crime even if they didn’t commit it but participated with others who did.