Texas Executes Prisoner Who Murdered His Dealer's Girlfriend

Ramiro Gonzales, the Texas death row inmate who once made headlines with his desire to donate a kidney before his death, was executed in the state Wednesday. Gonzales, 41, sexually assaulted and murdered 18-year-old Bridget Townsend, the girlfriend of his drug dealer, in 2001. His attorneys and other supporters had pushed for mercy, arguing he was a transformed man, but the state Board of Parole and Pardons voted unanimously Monday to deny the defense team's clemency request, the Washington Post reports. In his final statement before the lethal injection was administered, Gonzales apologized profusely to Townsend's family, CNN reports.

Gonzales, whose petition to donate a kidney back in 2022 was denied, became a committed Christian and a preacher behind bars, and also acted as a mentor to his fellow inmates. His attorneys argued in their appeals that such actions proved their client had changed and would not be a danger in the future, a requirement in Texas for a person to be eligible for the death penalty (the Post notes that's a "contentious" part of the state's capital punishment process). But state attorneys pointed to other violent behavior committed before his conviction as evidence the jury was correct in its finding of "future dangerousness." (More Texas stories.)