XPost: talk.rape, tx.politics, or.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns, sac.politics   
   From: addison12@gmx.net   
      
   Another murdering, raping Bill Clinton immigrant meets his fate for crimes   
   against Americans.   
      
   A Texas man who admitted he kidnapped, sexually assaulted and fatally shot   
   an 18-year-old woman in 2001 was executed Wednesday evening — what would   
   have been the victim's 41st birthday.   
      
   Ramiro Gonzales, 41, was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. CDT following a   
   chemical injection at the state penitentiary in Huntsville for the January   
   2001 killing of Bridget Townsend.   
      
   Gonzales was repeatedly apologetic to the victim's relatives in his last   
   statement 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   
   said.   
      
   "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, just before the lethal dose   
   of the sedative pentobarbital began flowing.   
      
   As the drug took effect, he took seven breaths, then began sounds like   
   snores. Within less than a minute, all movement had stopped.   
      
   The remains of Bridget Townsend weren't found until October 2002, nearly   
   two years after she vanished, when Ramiro Gonzales, having received two   
   life sentences for kidnapping and raping another woman, led authorities to   
   the spot in Southwest Texas where he left her body.   
      
   Patricia Townsend, the victim's mother, told USA Today that June 26 is her   
   daughter's birthday. She would have turned 41 years old Wednesday.   
      
   "When they told me June 26, I started crying, crying and crying," she   
   said. "That's her birthday."   
      
   Gonzales, 41, was condemned for fatally shooting Townsend after stealing   
   drugs and money and kidnapping her in January 2001 from a home in Bandera   
   County, located northwest of San Antonio. He took her to his family's   
   ranch in neighboring Medina County, where he sexually assaulted her and   
   killed her.   
      
   The U.S. Supreme Court declined a defense plea to intervene about 1 and   
   1/2 hours before the execution was scheduled to start. The high court   
   rejected arguments by Gonzales' lawyers that he had taken responsibility   
   for what he did and that a prosecution expert witness now says he was   
   wrong in testifying that Gonzales would be a future danger to society, a   
   legal finding needed to impose a death sentence.   
      
   "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' lawyers wrote Monday in their petition. A group of faith leaders   
   have also asked authorities to stop Gonzales' execution.   
      
   Gonzales' lawyers argued that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals had   
   violated his constitutional rights by declining to review his claims that   
   a prosecution expert, psychiatrist Edward Gripon, wrongly asserted   
   Gonzales would be a future danger. After re-evaluating Gonzales in 2022,   
   Gripon said his prediction was wrong.   
      
   "I just want (Townsend's mother) to know how sorry I really am. I took   
   everything that was valuable from a mother," Gonzales, who was 18 years   
   old at the time of the killing, said in a video submitted as part of his   
   clemency request to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. "So, every day   
   it's a continual task to do everything that I can to feel that   
   responsibility for the life that I took."   
      
   "Unforgivable acts"   
   Bridget Townsend's brother wasn't persuaded. In various petitions and   
   posts on Change.org, David Townsend had criticized efforts to portray   
   Gonzales as anything other than a convicted murderer who committed   
   "unforgivable acts." He said the death sentence should be carried out.   
      
   "Our family seeks not revenge, but closure and a measure of peace after   
   years of heartache - a quest that is hindered, not helped, by decisions   
   that allow the perpetrator of our pain to remain in the public eye," David   
   Townsend wrote.   
      
   Earlier this month, a group of 11 evangelical leaders from Texas and   
   around the country asked the parole board and Gov. Greg Abbott to halt the   
   execution and grant clemency to Gonzalez, saying he now helps other death   
   row inmates through a faith-based program.   
      
   "We are writing as Christians calling for you to spare the life of another   
   Christian – Ramiro Gonzales. Ramiro has changed. Because he has changed,   
   we believe the circumstances surrounding him should change as well," they   
   wrote.   
      
   On Monday, the parole board voted 7-0 against commuting Gonzales' death   
   sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also rejected granting a six-month   
   reprieve.   
      
   Prosecutors described Gonzales as a sexual predator who told police he   
   ignored Townsend's pleas to spare her life. They argued that jurors   
   reached the right decision on a death sentence because he had a long   
   criminal history and showed no remorse.   
      
   "The State's punishment case was overwhelming," the Texas Attorney   
   General's Office said. "Even if Dr. Gripon's testimony were wiped from the   
   punishment slate, it would not have mattered."   
      
   Gonzales' execution marks the second this year in Texas. Convicted   
   murderer Ivan Cantu was executed in February. According to the Death   
   Penalty Information Center, Texas currently has 185 people on death row.   
      
   "She was a beautiful person who loved life and loved people," Patricia   
   Townsend told USA Today about her daughter. "Every time she was with   
   somebody she hadn't seen in a while, she had to hug 'em ... She didn't   
   deserve what she got."   
      
   She told USA Today before the execution that it would be a "joyful   
   occasion" for her and her family,   
      
   https://www.cbsnews.com/news/texas-execution-ramiro-gonzales-birthday-   
   murder-victim-bridget-townsend/?intcid=CNR-02-0623   
      
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    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)