Texas death row inmate Ramiro Gonzales was executed by deadly injection Wednesday, regardless of quite a few appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, for the 2001 homicide and rape of a teenage woman.
Gonzales was pronounced lifeless at 6:50 p.m. following a chemical injection on the state penitentiary in Huntsville. His execution comes after he admitted to fatally shooting 18-year-old Bridget Townsend, a southwest Texas woman whose stays have been discovered almost two years after she vanished in 2001.
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Ramiro Gonzales, 41, was pronounced lifeless at 6:50 p.m. CDT following a chemical injection on the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the January 2001 killing of Bridget Townsend. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice through AP)
In an announcement launched by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Gonzales repeatedly apologized to the sufferer’s household from the execution chamber.
“I can’t put into words the pain I have caused y’all, the hurt, what I took away that I cannot give back. I hope this apology is enough,” he stated.
“I never stopped praying that you would forgive me and that one day I would have this opportunity to apologize. I owe all of you my life and I hope one day you will forgive me,” he added.
The U.S flag and the Texas State flag fly over the Texas State Capitol (REUTERS/Brian Snyder)
Townsend, who would have turned 41 this 12 months, was kidnapped from her house in January 2001 and sexually assaulted by Gonzales earlier than he murdered her.
Her physique wasn’t discovered till October 2002, when Gonzales led authorities to her stays in southwest Texas after he had acquired two life sentences for kidnapping and raping another woman.
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“We have finally witnessed justice being served,” Townsend’s brother, David, stated after watching the execution. “This day marks the end of a long and painful journey for our family. For over two decades, we have endured unimaginable pain and heartache.”
David stated Gonzales’ loss of life “provides us a little bit of peace. I do want to say we are not joyous, we are not happy. This is a very, very sad day for everyone all the way around.”
FILE – The execution chamber on the Idaho Maximum Security Institution is proven as Security Institution Warden Randy Blades look on in Boise, Idaho on Oct. 20, 2011. (AP Photo/Jessie L. Bonner, File)
Gonzales’ attorneys, Thea Posel and Raoul Schonemann, beforehand made requests asking the board to alter his loss of life sentence to a lesser penalty.
“He has earnestly devoted himself to self-improvement, contemplation, and prayer, and has grown into a mature, peaceful, kind, loving, and deeply religious adult. He acknowledges his responsibility for his crimes and has sought to atone for them and to seek redemption through his actions,” Gonzales’ attorneys wrote in a request to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.
Earlier this month, a bunch of 11 evangelical leaders from Texas and across the nation requested the parole board and Gov. Greg Abbott to halt the execution and grant clemency.
On Monday, the parole board voted 7-0 towards commuting Gonzales’ loss of life sentence to a lesser penalty. Members additionally rejected granting him a six-month reprieve.
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Gonzales’ execution was the second this 12 months in Texas and the eighth within the U.S.
On Thursday, Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Richard Rojem for the 1984 abduction, rape and killing of a 7-year-old lady.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.