Texas Executes Ramiro Gonzales, Despite Reversal From Doctor Who Helped Send Him To Death Row

Gonzales “does not pose a threat of future danger to society,” psychiatrist Edward Gripon wrote after his 2022 reevaluation.

Texas executed Ramiro Gonzales on Wednesday despite a stunning reversal from a psychiatrist who helped send him to death row 17 years ago.

Gonzales, 41, was killed by lethal injection as punishment for kidnapping, raping and murdering Bridget Townsend when they were both 18. At the time, Gonzales was struggling with drug addiction. He killed Townsend, his drug dealer’s girlfriend, while trying to steal drugs. He had turned 18 two months before the killing, making him barely old enough to be legally eligible to be sentenced to death.

“The Ramiro who the state of Texas killed tonight was not the Ramiro who committed these crimes twenty years ago,” Gonzales’ lawyers, Thea Posel and Raoul Schonemann said in a statement. “The Ramiro who left this world was, by all accounts, a deeply spiritual, generous, patient, and intentional person, full of remorse, someone whose driving force was love. He sought to spread and embody love in all aspects of his life, even in the deprivation and physical isolation of death row where he lived for the past 18 years.”

“Ramiro knew he took something from this world he could never give back,” Gonzales’ lawyers said. “He lived with that shame every day, and it shaped the person he worked so hard to become. If this country’s legal system was intended to encourage rehabilitation, he would be an exemplar.”

Patricia Townsend, the mother of Bridget Townsend, previously told USA Today that Gonzales’ execution would be a “joyful occasion” for her family, noting that it took place on her daughter’s birthday. Bridget Townsend “was a beautiful person who loved life and loved people,” she said. “Every time she was with somebody she hadn’t seen in a while, she had to hug ’em.”