Federal Courts Now an Avenue for Inmates to Challenge Texas DNA Testing Laws
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a Texas death row inmate can sue state officials in federal court to pursue post-conviction DNA testing, a decision that could significantly impact how Texas provides access to forensic evidence after conviction.
In a 6-3 decision, the high court reversed a Fifth Circuit ruling, finding that Ruben Gutierrez has standing under federal civil rights law to seek a declaratory judgment challenging Texas’s DNA testing procedures as unconstitutional.
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While the ruling doesn’t guarantee Gutierrez will receive the testing, it allows his case to proceed in federal court, a crucial development for inmates in states with restrictive testing laws.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor, writing for the majority, stated that a “declaratory judgment in Gutierrez’s favor would redress his injury by removing the allegedly unconstitutional barrier” erected by Texas law.
Gutierrez, who admitted being present at the scene of the 1999 robbery and murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison, seeks DNA testing to prove he did not directly participate in the murder, a distinction he argues would make him ineligible for the death penalty. Texas courts had repeatedly denied his requests, reasoning that even if DNA evidence excluded him from the crime scene, it wouldn’t prove his innocence of capital murder.
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In 2020, a federal district court found Texas’s post-conviction DNA testing law unconstitutional, as it limited testing to claims of innocence of the conviction, not innocence of the death penalty. This decision was later reversed by the Fifth Circuit, which argued that federal courts lacked jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court’s decision clarifies that a prisoner’s constitutional right to sue remains, even if prosecutors might find other reasons to deny DNA testing. Justices Neil Gorsuch, Samuel Alito, and Clarence Thomas dissented from the majority opinion.
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