27 June 2024 :
June 26, 2024 - Texas. Ramiro Gonzales, 41, Hispanic, was executed.
Gonzales was injected with a lethal dose of pentobarbital at 6:26 p.m. He was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CDT at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
Gonzales was convicted and sentenced to death in 2006 for the sexual assault and killing of 18-year-old Bridget Townsend.
Gonzales murdered Townsend in January 2001, after he called the home of his drug supplier, her boyfriend, in search of drugs. When Townsend told Gonzales her boyfriend wasn’t home, he went to the house in search of drugs. He stole money, then kidnapped Townsend, tying her hands and feet before driving her to a location near his family’s ranch, the opinion states. There, he raped and fatally shot her, it says.
The case went unsolved for 18 months. Then, while sitting in jail after pleading guilty to the rape of another woman, Gonzales confessed to Townsend’s killing and led authorities to her body.
Gonzales was repeatedly apologetic to the victim's relatives in his last statement from the execution chamber.
As the drug took effect, he took seven breaths, then began sounds like snores. Within less than a minute, all movement had stopped.
The U.S. Supreme Court declined a defense plea to intervene about 1 and 1/2 hours before the execution was scheduled to start. The high court rejected arguments by Gonzales' lawyers that he had taken responsibility for what he did and that a prosecution expert witness now says he was wrong in testifying that Gonzales would be a future danger to society, a legal finding needed to impose a death sentence.
Gonzales' lawyers argued that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had violated his constitutional rights by declining to review his claims that a prosecution expert, psychiatrist Edward Gripon, wrongly asserted Gonzales would be a future danger. After re-evaluating Gonzales in 2022, Gripon said his prediction was wrong.
Earlier this month, a group of 11 evangelical leaders from Texas and around the country asked the parole board and Gov. Greg Abbott to halt the execution and grant clemency to Gonzalez, saying he now helps other death row inmates through a faith-based program.
On Monday, the parole board voted 7-0 against commuting Gonzales' death sentence to a lesser penalty.
Gonzales' execution marks the second this year in Texas, the 588th overall since Texas resumed capital punishment in 1982, and the nation’s eighth this year, and the 1,59oth overall since the country resumed executions in 1977
