Court Opinion

ID: 9931298
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2024-02-08 19:01:19.467277+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:18:06.513551
License: Public Domain

Case: 21-70009       Document: 00517059897         Page: 1      Date Filed: 02/08/2024

            United States Court of Appeals
                 for the Fifth Circuit                                     United States Court of Appeals
                                                                                    Fifth Circuit

                                  ____________                                    FILED
                                                                           February 8, 2024
                                   No. 21-70009                              Lyle W. Cayce
                                  ____________                                    Clerk

   Ruben Gutierrez,

                                                                Plaintiff—Appellee,

                                        versus

   Luis V. Saenz; Felix Sauceda, Chief, Brownsville Police Department,

                                            Defendants—Appellants.
                    ______________________________

                    Appeal from the United States District Court
                        for the Southern District of Texas
                              USDC No. 1:19-CV-185
                    ______________________________

   Before Southwick, Haynes, and Higginson, Circuit Judges.
   Leslie H. Southwick, Circuit Judge:
          In 1999, Ruben Gutierrez was convicted of capital murder and sen-
   tenced to death in a Texas state court. Since 2011, Gutierrez’s efforts to se-
   cure postconviction DNA testing have been denied in state and federal court.
   In this Section 1983 case, the district court accepted his claim that a particular
   limitation in Texas’s DNA testing statute was unconstitutional. We con-
   clude that Gutierrez had no standing to make this claim. We VACATE the
   district court’s judgment and REMAND for the complaint to be dismissed
   for lack of jurisdiction.
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                                    No. 21-70009

              FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
          In September 1998, 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison was murdered.
   Ex parte Gutierrez, 337 S.W.3d 883, 886 (Tex. Crim. App. 2011). Harrison
   had been living with her nephew, Avel Cuellar, in a home that also served as
   the office for a mobile-home park in Brownsville, Texas. Gutierrez and Cuel-
   lar were friends. They along with other friends frequently gathered behind
   Harrison’s home to drink and socialize. Because of Harrison’s mistrust of
   banks, she had about $600,000 in cash in her home. Gutierrez had be-
   friended Harrison and sometimes ran errands for her. Sadly, that led to
   Gutierrez’s finding out about the money. Gutierrez crafted a plan to steal it.
          Three men were involved in the crime on September 5, 1998:
   Gutierrez, Rene Garcia, and Pedro Gracia. Only two entered the home, and
   Gutierrez insists he was the one who stayed outside. Harrison was murdered
   during the robbery. Police soon considered Gutierrez a suspect.
          On three separate days, Gutierrez made three contradictory state-
   ments to the police. Gutierrez first told police he was not involved with Har-
   rison’s murder, claiming an alibi. When the alibi failed, Gutierrez told police
   that he had planned to “rip off” Harrison but had waited at a park while Rene
   Garcia and Pedro Gracia stole from her; he had never wanted them to kill her.
   Gutierrez last stated that he had lied about waiting in a park and that he had,
   in fact, been in Harrison’s home on the day of her murder. When Rene Gar-
   cia failed to lure Harrison outside the home so that Gutierrez could discretely
   steal the money, Gutierrez entered and saw Rene Garcia repeatedly stab the
   victim with a screwdriver. Gutierrez took the money, and Pedro Gracia
   drove the three of them away from the home.
          At the 1999 trial in Cameron County state district court, the prosecu-
   tion’s theory was that Gutierrez intentionally murdered Harrison, either as a
   principal or party. The prosecution relied on (1) the testimony of the medical

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   examiner that the stab wounds came from two different screwdrivers; (2)
   Gutierrez’s statement that he and Rene Garcia had been inside the victim’s
   home with two different screwdrivers; and (3) four witnesses placing
   Gutierrez at the crime scene on the day of the killing.
          The jury was instructed that it could convict Gutierrez for capital
   murder if it found he acted alone or as a party with an accomplice to cause
   Harrison’s death intentionally. The jury returned a general verdict of guilt,
   and in April 1999 the trial judge sentenced him to death. The Texas Court
   of Criminal Appeals affirmed in 2002.
          Then began decades-long postconviction proceedings. Gutierrez filed
   a state habeas application that was denied by the Texas Court of Criminal
   Appeals in 2008. Gutierrez then filed a habeas application in federal district
   court in 2009. The district court stayed the proceedings to allow him to pur-
   sue unexhausted state law claims in state court. As part of these additional
   claims, Gutierrez requested counsel be appointed to file a Texas Code of
   Criminal Procedure Chapter 64 motion for DNA testing of several pieces of
   evidence: (1) a blood sample taken from the victim; (2) a shirt belonging to
   Cuellar that had blood stains on it; (3) nail scrapings from the victim; (4) sev-
   eral blood samples from in the home; and (5) a loose hair recovered from the
   victim’s finger. The state court denied the request, and the Court of Crimi-
   nal Appeals dismissed Gutierrez’s appeal from the decision as premature be-
   cause he had not actually filed a motion for DNA testing at that point.
          Gutierrez then filed his state-court motion for postconviction DNA
   testing under Chapter 64 in 2010. In his motion, Gutierrez acknowledged
   being one of the three men involved in the robbery of Harrison. He claimed
   DNA evidence would show he was not one of the two individuals who en-
   tered the victim’s home — and by extension, would show by a preponderance
   of the evidence that jurors would not have convicted him of capital murder

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   or sentenced him to death. The trial judge denied the motion. The Court of
   Criminal Appeals affirmed in 2011, in part on the grounds that Chapter 64
   “does not authorize testing when exculpatory testing results might affect
   only the punishment or sentence that he received.” Id. at 901 (citing TEX.
   CODE CRIM. PROC. art. 64.03(a)(2)(A)).
          The federal district court reopened the habeas case once the state
   proceedings concluded in 2011. It denied Gutierrez’s habeas application
   entirely and his request for a certificate of appealability. See Gutierrez v.
   Stephens, 590 F. App’x 371, 374 (5th Cir. 2014). This court also denied a
   certificate of appealability. Id. at 375.
          Over the next few years, Gutierrez continued to seek DNA testing. In
   June 2019, the state district court initially granted his motion for DNA testing
   but withdrew the order a few days later and then denied the motion. On
   February 26, 2020, the Court of Criminal Appeals upheld the denial.
   Gutierrez v. State, No. AP-77,089, 2020 WL 918669, at *9 (Tex. Crim. App.
   Feb. 26, 2020).
          While the state-court proceedings were ongoing, Gutierrez brought
   this suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the United States District Court,
   Southern District of Texas in Brownsville. The only defendants who are
   parties to this appeal are Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz
   and Brownsville Police Chief Felix Sauceda, Jr. Gutierrez’s September 2019
   complaint challenged both (1) the constitutionality of Texas postconviction
   DNA testing procedures, and (2) execution protocols prohibiting the
   presence of chaplains or religious ministers inside the execution room.
   Gutierrez amended his complaint after the February 2020 decision of the
   Court of Criminal Appeals. The defendants moved to dismiss. The district
   court granted the defendants’ motion in part but declined to dismiss

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   Gutierrez’s challenge to the constitutionality of Texas law on DNA testing.
   Gutierrez’s execution was then stayed.
          This court vacated the district court’s stay, but our decision was in
   turn vacated by the Supreme Court. Gutierrez v. Saenz, 818 F. App’x 309,
   315 (5th Cir. 2020), cert. granted, judgment vacated, 141 S. Ct. 1260 (2021).
   The Supreme Court ordered us “to remand the case to the District Court for
   further and prompt consideration of the merits of petitioner’s underlying
   claims regarding the presence of a spiritual advisor in the execution
   chamber.” Gutierrez, 141 S. Ct. at 1261. That is what we did.
          In March 2023, the district court granted the defendants’ opposed
   motion to dismiss Gutierrez’s religious exercise claims as moot after the
   Director of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice submitted an affidavit
   approving Gutierrez’s request to have his chosen spiritual adviser pray aloud
   and place a hand on Gutierrez’s shoulder during the execution, among other
   requests. Gutierrez did not appeal the dismissal.
          Besides the religious accommodation issues, Gutierrez continued his
   efforts to acquire DNA testing. He claimed that a limitation under Texas law
   for acquiring that testing was unconstitutional. The alleged invalidity was
   not directly with Chapter 64 but with how it improperly limited the rights
   granted in another Texas statute that governs successive habeas applications
   for those sentenced to death. See TEX. CODE CRIM. PROC. art. 11.071. As the
   federal district court put it, “Texas grants the substantive right to file a
   second habeas petition with a clear and convincing showing of innocence of
   the death penalty in Article 11.071 [§ 5(a)(3)], and then Chapter 64 denies
   the petitioner access to DNA evidence by which a person can avail himself of
   that right.” Gutierrez v. Saenz, 565 F. Supp. 3d 892, 910 (S.D. Tex. 2021).
   In the district court’s view, the right to bring a successive habeas application
   to claim innocence of the death penalty was “illusory” and therefore violated

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   procedural due process.           Id. at 910–11.        The district court granted a
   declaratory judgment for Gutierrez. Id. at 911. The district court later
   entered partial final judgment as to the DNA claims. The defendants timely
   appealed.
                                        DISCUSSION
           Because we conclude that Gutierrez did not have standing to bring this
   suit, it is the only issue we consider.1
           Texas prisoner Gutierrez brought suit under Section 1983 to challenge
   the constitutionality of a limitation under Texas law for when death-row
   inmates are entitled to DNA testing of evidence.                    Section 1983 is the
   necessary federal statutory vehicle because, as we will later discuss at some
   length, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals earlier denied Gutierrez the
   testing he seeks. Though barred from making a direct challenge in federal
   court to that state-court denial, he may make a facial challenge to the statutes,
   rules, and interpretations on which the denial was based. See Truong v. Bank
   of Am., N.A., 717 F.3d 377, 382 (5th Cir. 2013). The Supreme Court recently
   applied those principles when it allowed another Texas inmate’s claim of
   constitutional defect in Texas’s DNA testing procedures after the Court of
   Criminal Appeals had denied such testing. See Reed v. Goertz, 598 U.S. 230,

           _____________________
           1
               The district court rejected the defendants’ argument that Gutierrez’s
   constitutional challenge is barred by the relevant statute of limitations. Section 1983 claims
   are subject to a state’s general personal injury statute of limitations. Wallace v. Kato, 549
   U.S. 384, 387 (2007). The parties agree that the relevant statute is Texas’s general
   personal injury statute of limitations, which is two years. TEX. CIV. PRAC. & REM. CODE
   § 16.003(a). The district court concluded that events long after the 2011 Texas Court of
   Criminal Appeals opinion that first upheld the denial of DNA testing to Gutierrez had
   restarted the two-year period. Those events, though, such as amendments to the DNA
   statute, would have to be germane to the claim that prohibiting testing for evidence that at
   most would affect sentencing violated due process. Otherwise, the claim was untimely. In
   light of our ruling as to standing, we need not resolve this separate issue.

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   235 (2023). Even though the Court of Criminal Appeals had already rejected
   that prisoner’s effort to have DNA testing of evidence, the Supreme Court
   allowed the claim because he did “‘not challenge the adverse’ state-court
   decisions themselves, but rather ‘target[ed] as unconstitutional the Texas
   statute they authoritatively construed.’” Id. (quoting Skinner v. Switzer, 562
   U.S. 521, 532 (2011)).
          Reed’s argument was that strict chain-of-custody requirements
   violated due process. Id. at 233. Gutierrez has a different claim, namely, that
   the state violates due process by permitting testing only if the evidence could
   establish the prisoner would not have been convicted, thereby preventing
   testing if resulting evidence would be relevant only to the sentence. The
   defendants allege that Gutierrez has no standing to make that claim. If a party
   lacks Article III standing to pursue claims, a federal court lacks subject matter
   jurisdiction to adjudicate them. See Abraugh v. Altimus, 26 F.4th 298, 304
   (5th Cir. 2022). We examine standing de novo. NAACP v. City of Kyle, 626
   F.3d 233, 236 (5th Cir. 2010).
          To establish Article III standing, a plaintiff must prove that: (1) an
   “injury in fact” has occurred; (2) the injury can fairly be traced to the
   defendant’s conduct; and (3) a favorable ruling will likely redress the injury.
   Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife, 504 U.S. 555, 560–61 (1992). The defendant district
   attorney and police chief assert that Gutierrez cannot satisfy the third
   requirement. Gutierrez’s claimed injury is not redressable against these
   defendants, the argument goes, because they do not enforce Texas’s DNA
   testing statute and the district court’s declaratory judgment does not direct
   them to do anything. Our question, then, is whether a declaratory judgment
   that Texas’s procedures for DNA testing are constitutionally flawed
   redresses the claimed injury.

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          Seeking an answer, we return to the recent Supreme Court precedent
   that allowed a different inmate to assert a claim about flaws in Texas’s DNA
   testing requirements. See Reed, 598 U.S. 230. The Court concluded that a
   prisoner had standing to pursue a declaratory judgment against a state
   prosecutor that Texas’s postconviction DNA testing law “failed to provide
   procedural due process.” Id. at 233–34; see Reed v. Goertz, 995 F.3d 425, 428
   (5th Cir. 2021) (stating that Reed sought a declaratory judgment), rev’d 598
   U.S. at 237. A favorable declaratory judgment would likely redress the injury,
   the Court found, because it “would eliminate the state prosecutor’s
   justification for denying DNA testing.” Reed, 598 U.S. at 234.
          In other words, in “terms of our ‘standing’ precedent, the
          courts would have ordered a change in a legal status,” and “the
          practical consequence of that change would amount to a
          significant increase in the likelihood” that the state prosecutor
          would grant access to the requested evidence and that [the
          prisoner] therefore “would obtain relief that directly redresses
          the injury suffered.”
   Id. (quoting Utah v. Evans, 536 U.S. 452, 464 (2002)).
          That analysis initially seems equally applicable here. Gutierrez has
   brought his claim against the correct party — the local prosecutor — and,
   like Reed, challenges a Texas DNA testing requirement. Texas argues there
   is a distinction, though. This prosecutor would not likely reverse course and
   allow testing, the argument posits, even were a federal court to declare Texas
   may not deny DNA testing that would affect only the punishment stage.
   Allegedly keeping the prosecutor on course is the Texas Court of Criminal
   Appeals’ prior holding that such a decision would not entitle Gutierrez to
   testing. Gutierrez, 337 S.W.3d at 901. We now examine that part of the state
   court’s opinion.

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          Gutierrez’s relevant argument both in 2011 and now starts with the
   fact that Article 11.071 § 5(a)(3) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure
   allows a death-row inmate’s claim that, “but for a violation of the United
   States Constitution no rational juror would have answered in the state’s favor
   one or more of the special issues that were submitted to the jury in the
   applicant’s trial under Article 37.071, 37.0711, or 37.072.” Section 5(a)(2)
   provides that, “but for a violation of the United States Constitution no
   rational juror could have found the applicant guilty beyond a reasonable
   doubt.” Because the statute allows an inmate to contest his conviction and
   also his sentence, Gutierrez argues it is unconstitutional for Chapter 64 to
   permit DNA testing only for claims about the conviction.
          The Court of Criminal Appeals, though, held in 2011 that “even if
   Chapter 64 did apply to evidence that might affect the punishment stage as
   well as conviction,” Gutierrez would not be entitled to the testing because he
   “would still have been death-eligible.” Gutierrez, 337 S.W.3d at 901. The
   court held that his eligibility existed because the evidence was sufficient to
   show his knowing participation in the robbery and a mental state at least of
   reckless indifference to the possibility of murder. Id. at 901 & n.61.
          Gutierrez agrees that the appeal turns on whether DNA evidence
   might show he was not “death-eligible” but argues DNA testing could show
   just that by proving he did not commit the murder itself and neither intended
   nor anticipated anyone would be killed. That collection of requirements
   comes from Article 37.071 § (2)(b) of the Texas Code of Criminal Procedure,
   a provision that identifies the jury issues when guilt would arise if jurors find
   that the defendant was a party to a crime.
          Instead of “not death-eligible,” the district court and some of our
   cited authorities have used the awkward phrase “innocent of the death
   penalty.” See Gutierrez, 565 F. Supp. 3d at 901. That wording has been used

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   when discussing the test for whether a prisoner with a capital sentence may
   bring a successive habeas application in federal court. The inmate must
   show, “based on the evidence proffered plus all record evidence, a fair
   probability that a rational trier of fact would have entertained a reasonable
   doubt as to the existence of those facts which are prerequisites under state or
   federal law for the imposition of the death penalty.” Sawyer v. Whitley, 505
   U.S. 333, 346 (1992) (quoting Sawyer v. Whitley, 945 F.2d 812, 820 (5th Cir.
   1991)). Gutierrez agrees that the Court of Criminal Appeals’ use of “death-
   eligible” is the equivalent. In Sawyer, the Supreme Court wrote “that the
   ‘actual innocence’ requirement must focus on those elements that render a
   defendant eligible for the death penalty, and not on additional mitigating
   evidence.” Id. at 347.
             The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals held that even if DNA evidence
   demonstrated Gutierrez was not in the house when Harrison was murdered,
   that proof “would not overcome the overwhelming evidence of his direct
   involvement in the multi-assailant murder.” Gutierrez, 337 S.W.3d at 902.
   Whatever DNA evidence might prove, other evidence sufficiently supported
   that Gutierrez was still legally subject to the death penalty:
             Appellant would still have been death-eligible because the
             record facts satisfy the Enmund/Tison culpability requirements
             that he played a major role in the underlying robbery and that
             his acts showed a reckless indifference to human life.[2]

             _____________________
   2
       The court’s footnote 61 to the statement was this:
             Tison v. Arizona, 481 U.S. 137, 107 S. Ct. 1676, 95 L.Ed.2d 127 (1987)
             (Eighth Amendment does not prohibit death penalty as disproportionate
             in case of defendant whose participation in felony that results in murder is
             major and whose mental state is one of reckless indifference); Enmund v.
             Florida, 458 U.S. 782, 102 S. Ct. 3368, 73 L.Ed.2d 1140 (1982); Article
             37.071(2)(b)(2).

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   Id. In 2020, the Court of Criminal Appeals restated that reasoning when
   again denying relief. Gutierrez, 2020 WL 918669, at *8.
          The State’s argument here is that Reed does not apply when a Section
   1983 plaintiff is seeking a declaratory judgment that some state statute or rule
   violates federal law, but the highest state court already considered that
   possible violation and found it would not justify the relief being sought. We
   conclude that if the reasons the state court found there would be no effect do
   not raise another issue of federal law, there is merit to the distinction between
   Reed and this case.
          The Reed question here is would a Texas prosecutor, having in hand a
   federal court’s opinion that a DNA testing requirement violated federal law
   and also an earlier Court of Criminal Appeals opinion that this particular
   prisoner was not injured by that specific violation, likely order the DNA
   testing? In applying the concept of likely effect, the Supreme Court in Reed
   quoted an opinion analyzing standing for a challenge to the “counting
   method” used by the Census Bureau and Secretary of Commerce when
   allocating congressional seats after the 2000 census. Evans, 536 U.S. at 460–
   61. The Court stated that the President and Secretary were likely to abide by
   an authoritative pronouncement from the Court that the counting method
   violated either a statute or the Constitution. Id. at 463–64. We interpret that
   holding as the result of the Court’s fact-specific evaluation, not just a
   categorical statement that whenever the Supreme Court speaks, government
   officials will respond mechanically. The specifics of the case are important
   in deciding how the decision is likely to affect a relevant actor. We conclude
   that a state prosecutor is quite likely to follow what his state’s highest
   criminal court has already held should be the effect of such a decision.
          The final step before adopting the proposed distinction is to see if it
   actually distinguishes Reed. We start with what Reed argued at the Supreme

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   Court. “Among other things, Reed argued that the law’s stringent chain-of-
   custody requirement was unconstitutional and in effect foreclosed DNA
   testing for individuals convicted before ‘rules governing the State’s handling
   and storage of evidence were put in place.’” Reed, 598 U.S. at 233 (quoting
   Joint Appendix at 39, Reed, 598 U.S. 230 (No. 21-442)).3
           If Reed is to be distinguished from the case, we need to determine if
   the Court of Criminal Appeals held, even if chain-of-custody limitations
   violated federal law, that Reed’s claim would still fail. That court certainly
   gave lengthy consideration to Reed’s effort to acquire DNA testing of certain
   evidence. See Reed v. State, 541 S.W.3d 759, 764–80 (Tex. Crim. App. 2017).
   The court held that numerous items were not available for DNA testing
   because the chain of custody for them was broken. Id. at 770. The court did
   not discuss the constitutionality of the state’s chain-of-custody requirements
   or whether Reed would gain the testing if they violated a federal right.4

           _____________________
           3
             It gives us some pause that the Supreme Court in Reed did not mention examining
   the state court’s decision for whether it might affect the prosecutor’s likely actions. That
   could mean, implicitly, that the state court opinion was irrelevant. Instead, perhaps this
   principle applies: “Questions which merely lurk in the record, neither brought to the
   attention of the court nor ruled upon, are not to be considered as having been so decided.”
   Johnson v. Halstead, 916 F.3d 410, 419 n.3 (5th Cir. 2019) (quoting Webster v. Fall, 266 U.S.
   507, 511 (1925)). We examined the Reed briefs at the Supreme Court; none argued that
   some holding in the state court opinion would affect the prosecutor’s likely actions.
            We adopt the “lurk in the record” option and consider the distinction viable. As
   we discuss, one good reason for silence in the briefs and in the Supreme Court opinion is
   that the Court of Criminal Appeals made no similar pronouncement in its Reed decision.
           4
              The initial briefs submitted to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in Reed did
   not allege unconstitutionality in the chain-of-custody requirements. Understandably, then,
   the state court’s opinion did not discuss, as the Gutierrez opinion did, whether DNA testing
   would be justified even if the relevant requirements were unconstitutional. Reed first
   raised a constitutional argument about chain of custody in his motion for rehearing. The
   state court denied rehearing without an opinion. See Order Denying Rehearing, Reed, 541
   S.W.3d 759 (No. AP–77,054), available at https://search.txcourts.gov/Case.aspx?cn=AP-

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          Considering this background, what is the federal issue that could be
   resolved in this Section 1983 suit that would have a likely effect on the
   prosecutor? The Court of Criminal Appeals has already found that Gutierrez
   would have no right to DNA testing even if the statutory bar to testing for
   evidence about sentencing were held to be unconstitutional. The federal
   district court found unconstitutionality, but according to the Court of
   Criminal Appeals, any new evidence “would not overcome the
   overwhelming evidence of his direct involvement in the multi-assailant
   murder.” Gutierrez, 337 S.W.3d at 902. Gutierrez acknowledges he is not
   entitled to DNA testing for what amounts to mitigation evidence, i.e.,
   evidence that might cause a reasonable juror to decide not to vote for the
   death penalty because, for example, he did not himself commit the murder.
          The following summarizes Gutierrez’s argument as to what DNA
   evidence could prove:
          DNA evidence that identifies perpetrators but excludes Mr.
          Gutierrez would establish that Mr. Gutierrez was not present
          inside the trailer where the murder took place and did not
          participate in the murder. This evidence thus would cast doubt
          on whether Mr. Gutierrez “actually caused the death of the
          decedent or . . . intended to kill the deceased or anticipated that
          a human life would be taken.” Tex. Code Crim. Proc. Ann. art.
          37.071(b)(2).
          Gutierrez’s disagreement with the Court of Criminal Appeals’ finding
   that DNA evidence would not override the “overwhelming evidence” of
   guilt of a capital crime is a factual disagreement about the potential effect of
   new evidence on jurors.       This declaratory judgment action is a facial

          _____________________
   77,054&coa=coscca. Thus, the Texas court made no holding in Reed comparable to its
   holding in Gutierrez about potential invalidation of the challenged requirement.

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   challenge to Texas statutes. It is not properly used to contest fact-findings
   by a state court in that court’s prior denial of DNA testing.
          Reed is properly distinguished. As to Gutierrez, the Texas Court of
   Criminal Appeals effectively anticipated an unfavorable federal court ruling.
   That court held, should the limitation on DNA testing for evidence relevant
   only to conviction be invalid, the facts in the trial record would prevent
   Gutierrez from receiving the DNA testing because such evidence could not
   change the fact that he was death-eligible. As a result, we conclude that a
   state court, if presented with Gutierrez’s request for DNA testing, would be
   bound by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ holding that such testing
   would be meaningless. The Reed analysis that standing requires that a
   prosecutor be likely to grant access to the requested evidence should a
   favorable federal court ruling be obtained cannot be satisfied on the facts of
   this case.
          Because there is not a substantial likelihood that a favorable ruling by
   a federal court on Gutierrez’s claims would cause the prosecutor to order
   DNA testing, Gutierrez’s claims are not redressable in this Section 1983 suit.
   We VACATE the district court’s judgment and REMAND to have the
   complaint dismissed for lack of jurisdiction.

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   Stephen A. Higginson, Circuit Judge, dissenting:
          With respect, I disagree that Ruben Gutierrez, a defendant facing ex-
   ecution, lacks standing to bring this suit.
          I do not see a meaningful distinction from Reed v. Goertz, 598 U.S. 230
   (2023), where the Supreme Court held “a prisoner had standing to pursue a
   declaratory judgment against a state prosecutor that Texas’s post-conviction
   DNA testing law ‘failed to provide procedural due process,’” Majority Op.
   at 7 (quoting in part Reed, 598 U.S. at 234). In the same context we face here,
   relating to a capital defendant’s challenge to Texas’s post-conviction DNA
   testing procedures, the Supreme Court clarified that if a federal court decides
   that procedure violates due process, the decision “would have ordered a
   change in a legal status [that] would amount to a significant increase in the
   likelihood that the state prosecutor would grant access to the requested evi-
   dence and that [the prisoner] therefore would obtain relief that directly re-
   dresses the injury suffered.” Reed, 598 U.S. at 234.
          Like Reed, Gutierrez filed suit against the appropriate local prosecu-
   tor and made a similar claim regarding Texas’s DNA testing regime. While
   I appreciate the majority’s careful tracing of the state-court case history and
   fair inquiry into what the named state prosecutor might or might not do, I do
   not perceive that the Supreme Court contemplated this nuance and distinc-
   tion. Instead of conducting a fact-specific inquiry and delving into what Dis-
   trict Attorney Goertz himself would do, the Court determined that a declar-
   atory judgment invalidating Texas’s DNA testing procedure would signifi-
   cantly increase the likelihood that the state prosecutor would grant access to
   the requested DNA testing.
          Because the standing analysis of Reed applies here, Gutierrez, also fac-
   ing execution, has standing to bring suit.

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