Texas death row inmate Ramiro Gonzalez was executed by lethal injection on Wednesday for the 2001 murder and rape of a teenage girl, despite multiple appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Gonzalez was injected with a chemical agent at the state prison in Huntsville and pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. Deadly Shot Bridget Townsend, an 18-year-old woman from southwest Texas, disappeared in 2001 and her body was discovered nearly two years later.
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Ramiro Gonzalez, 41, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CDT after being injected with a chemical agent at Huntsville State Prison for the January 2001 murder of Bridget Townsend. (Texas Department of Criminal Justice via The Associated Press)
In a statement released by the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Gonzalez repeatedly apologized to his victim’s family from the death chamber.
“Words cannot express the pain, the hurt and the irreparable damage I have caused you all. I hope this apology is enough,” he said.
“I kept praying that you would forgive me and that I would be given the opportunity to apologize one day. You all saved my life and I hope that one day you will forgive me,” he added.
The American and Texas flags fly at the Texas State Capitol (Reuters/Brian Snyder)
Townsend, who would have turned 41 this year, was kidnapped from her home in January 2001, sexually assaulted by Gonzalez and then murdered.
Her body was not discovered until October 2002, when Gonzalez led authorities to her body in southwest Texas after he was serving two life sentences for kidnapping and raping another woman.
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“We have finally witnessed justice being served,” Townsend’s brother, David, said after witnessing the execution. “This day marks the end of a long and painful journey for our family. For more than 20 years we have endured unimaginable pain and heartache.”
David said Gonzalez’s death “gives us a little bit of peace, but I would say we’re not pleased or happy. It’s a very, very sad day for everyone.”
FILE – The execution chamber at the Idaho Maximum Security Prison in Boise, Idaho, Oct. 20, 2011. Prison warden Randy Blades looks on. (AP Photo/Jesse L. Bonner, File)
Gonzalez’s lawyers, Thea Posel and Raul Schoenemann, had previously asked the commission to change the death sentence to a lesser punishment.
“He has seriously engaged in self-improvement, meditation and prayer and has emerged as a mature, peaceful, kind, loving and religious man. He accepts responsibility for his crimes and has sought atonement and redemption through his actions,” Gonzalez’s lawyers wrote in a petition filed with the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday.
Earlier this month, a group of 11 evangelical leaders from Texas and across the country called on the parole board and Governor Greg Abbott to halt the execution and grant clemency.
On Monday, the parole board voted 7-0 against commuting Gonzalez’s death sentence. Commissioners also declined to give Gonzalez a six-month reprieve.
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Gonzalez’s execution is the second in Texas this year and the eighth in the United States.
Oklahoma is scheduled to execute Richard Rojem on Thursday for the 1984 kidnapping, rape and murder of a 7-year-old girl.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
