By The opinion
Jun 25, 2024, 2:59 PM EDT
Texas parole board denies clemency to death row inmate Ramiro Gonzaleswhose execution is scheduled for Wednesday for a murder committed in 2001.
Gonzales, 41, had asked the Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency, which would allow the Republican governor Greg Abbott commute the inmate’s sentence to a lesser sentence, such as life in prison without parole, for the sexual assault and murder of Bridget Townsend18 years old, in 2001.
According to CNN, Gonzales and his lawyers pointed to his traumatic upbringing and his rehabilitation, illustrated by his Christian faith, as reasons for sparing his life, the petition shows.
The board voted 7-0 against recommending a commutation of the sentence or a 180-day pardon. His lawyers were “deeply saddened and disappointed” by the decision, they said in a statement.
In their request, the lawyers also pointed out that the jury that convicted him in 2006, when he was barely 18 years old, did not consider the past of Gonzales, who confessed to the murder of the young woman, who was the girlfriend of his drug supplier.
They have also cited the change in the psychiatrist’s testimony Edward Griponwho at trial said that Gonzales had raped the young woman for sexual gratification and was a poor candidate for rehabilitation, according to court documents.
But Gripon changed his opinion about Hispanics fifteen years later. “In my opinion, with reasonable psychiatric probability, he does not pose a threat of future danger to society,” he wrote in his report, the only time he has changed a diagnosis, according to documents from The Marshall Project.
In 2022 they temporarily stopped its execution
Since his incarceration, prison officials have attested to the favorable change in the inmate’s behavior and his willingness to do good after the crimes of his youth.
A spiritual advisor said that Gonzales expressed the desire to donate a kidney to a sick member of his congregation, but his blood type was not compatible with that of the potential recipient.
Gonzales’ only chance to save himself from death is in the United States Supreme Court to order a suspension while an appeal of the sentence is evaluated, according to EFE.
In 2022, his lawyers had already managed to stop the execution because the case became relevant, among other things, to be able to donate his kidney to someone who needs it, a wish that he has not been able to fulfill.
Keep reading:
– Hispanic inmate sentenced to death requested that his execution be delayed for one month so he could donate a kidney.
– Texas suspends death sentence against Latino inmate accused of killing his girlfriend’s daughter.