WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th June, 2020) The US Supreme Court has temporarily halted the execution of Ruben Gutierrez in Texas to review the state's ban on clergy in the death chamber, a court document said.
"The application for stay of execution of sentence of death presented to Justice Alito and by him referred to the Court is granted pending disposition of the petition for a writ of certiorari," the court document said on Tuesday evening.
The US Supreme Court is asking the District Court to act promptly to determine whether there would be serious security problems if an inmate had a spiritual adviser present in the death chamber.
If Gutierrez's execution took place as planned on Tuesday, it would make him the first inmate in Texas to be executed by lethal injection since February 6 and the second inmate in the United States since the authorities began to lift stay-at-home orders regarding the novel coronavirus pandemic.
Gutierrez was convicted of killing Escolastica Harrison in 1998 when he was attempting to steal more than $600,000 hidden in her home in Brownsville, Texas.
