Texas executed Ramiro Gonzales on June 26 over the objections of some evangelical leaders and the forensic psychologist who recanted his original assessment of Gonzales.
Gonzales was sentenced to death in 2006 for the 2001 kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Bridget Townsend when they both were 18 years old.
When Gonzales was sentenced, Dr. Edward Gripon testified Gonzales presented a future danger to others. Gripon later recanted and called for the sentence to be changed to life without parole.
In a June 3 letter to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, 11 evangelical Christians quoted Gripon’s evaluation of Gonzales as “a significantly different person both mentally and emotionally.”
Several Baptists—including Jesse Rincones, executive director of the Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas, and Stephen Reeves, executive director of Fellowship Southwest—urged clemency for Gonzales, saying he was a different person spiritually after coming to faith in Christ.
In January, Gonzales was selected as a peer coordinator and mentor for a faith-based unit in the Allan B. Polunsky Unit near Livingston.
In a petition for clemency submitted June 5, Gonzales’ attorneys argued at the time he committed his crimes Gonzales was “gripped by a serious addiction rooted in his exposure to drugs while still in the womb, compounded by the trauma and neglect that marked his childhood.”
Attorneys Thea Posel and Raoul Schonemann issued a statement after the execution saying: “Tonight the State of Texas executed Ramiro Gonzales for a crime he committed as an 18-year-old boy. The man put to death for those acts was a different person.” They stated Ramiro “showed love through his ministry to the men incarcerated alongside him.”
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