RAMIRO Gonzales is scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, June 26, for a 2001 sexual assault and killing of a 18-year-old woman.
Texas’ parole board, according to CNN, denied clemency for Gonzales, despite the fact a key expert witness no longer stands by his testimony at trial.
It was gathered that 41-year-old Gonzales had asked the Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency, which would allow GOP Gov. Greg Abbott to commute the inmate’s sentence to a lesser punishment, like life in prison without parole, for the 2001 sexual assault and killing Bridget Townsend.
The petition shows that Gonzales and his attorneys pointed to his traumatic upbringing and his rehabilitation, illustrated by his Christian faith as reasons to spare his life.
The board voted 7-0 against recommending a commutation of sentence or a 180-day reprieve.
His attorneys were “deeply saddened and disappointed” by the decision, they said in a statement.
“If Ramiro is executed on Wednesday, the world will be a darker place without him,” the attorneys said.
Without the board’s recommendation, Abbott is limited by state law to issuing a one-time 30-day reprieve.
Otherwise, Gonzales’ hopes rest with the courts: The inmate has asked for a stay of execution, arguing his trial jury’s determination that he would remain a dangerous threat, a requirement for a capital sentence in Texas was based on testimony by an expert witness who relied on data later found to be false.
And it was ultimately wrong, his attorneys argue, as shown by Gonzales’ redemption behind bars and his earlier attempts to donate a kidney.
Thus, Gonzales should be ineligible for execution, his attorneys argue, and executing him would violate his constitutional rights under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amendments.
The planned execution of Gonzales, who was previously slated to be put to death in July 2022 before the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals granted a stay, is one of two scheduled this week in the nation.
CNN reported that on Thursday, Oklahoma intends to execute Richard Rojem, who was convicted of the 1984 kidnapping, rape and murder of his 7-year-old stepdaughter, Layla Cummings, court records show.
Last week, the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole board voted against recommending clemency for Rojem, who claims he is innocent.
If both Gonzales and Rojem are put to death, their executions would be the eighth and ninth to take place in the United States this year, according to the Death Penalty Information Center, a non-profit that monitors and analyzes information about capital punishment and has been critical of its administration.
Both would be the second person to be executed in their respective states in 2024.
By this time last year, CrimesChroniclers learnt that 13 inmates had been put to death in the US, the center’s data shows.
