Convicted in 2001, Ramiro Gonzales was executed this Wednesday, June 26. This is the second execution in Texas and the eighth in the United States since the start of the year.
An American man sentenced to death for the murder of a woman in 2001 was executed this Wednesday, June 26, in the state of Texas, in the southern United States. Ramiro Gonzales, 41, was sentenced to death in 2006 for the rape and murder of Bridget Townsend, when both were 18 years old.
Executed by lethal injection, he was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. local time, according to a press release from the Texas authorities.
Ramiro Gonzales kidnapped, raped and then fatally shot Bridget Townsend, the girlfriend of his drug supplier, after finding her in January 2001 at the home of the latter, who was away.
Appeal rejected before the Supreme Court
The case was not solved until 18 months later, when Ramiro Gonzales, incarcerated after pleading guilty to raping another woman, confessed to the murder and led authorities to his victim’s body.
The final appeals of his lawyers before the Texas courts and then before the Supreme Court of the United States were rejected.
They argued in particular that in Texas, to pronounce the death penalty, jurors must assess the risks that the condemned person will engage in new acts of violence in the future.
However, the psychiatrist who examined him at the time of his trial, Dr. Edward Gripon, whose testimony was decisive, returned to his initial analysis after meeting him again in 2021 on death row, concluding that he no longer “represented a threat or future danger to society”.
A total of 24 executions were carried out in the United States in 2023, all by lethal injection. The death penalty has been abolished in 23 out of 50 American states. Six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee) observe a moratorium on executions by decision of the governor.
