Texas parole board denies clemency to Ramiro Gonzales, to be executed Wednesday despite expert witness walking back testimony

Texas’ parole board on Monday denied clemency for death row inmate Ramiro Gonzales, who is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for a 2001 murder, despite the fact a key expert witness no longer stands by his testimony at trial.

Texas’ parole board on Monday denied clemency for death row inmate Ramiro Gonzales, who is scheduled to be executed Wednesday for a 2001 murder, despite the fact a key expert witness no longer stands by his testimony at trial. Gonzales, 41, had asked the Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency, which would allow GOP Gov. Greg Abbott to commute the inmate’s sentence to a lesser punishment, like life in prison without parole, for the 2001 sexual assault and killing of 18-year-old Bridget Townsend. Gonzales and his attorneys pointed to his traumatic upbringing and his rehabilitation – illustrated by his Christian faith – as reasons to spare his life, the petition shows. The board voted 7-0 against recommending a commutation of sentence or a 180-day reprieve. His attorneys were “deeply saddened and disappointed” by the decision, they said in a statement. “If Ramiro is executed on Wednesday, the world will be a darker place without him,” the attorneys said. Without the board’s recommendation, Abbott is limited by state law to issuing a one-time 30-day reprieve. Otherwise, Gonzales’ hopes rest with the courts: On Monday, he asked the US Supreme Court for a stay of execution soon after the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected an appeal in which the inmate argued his trial jury’s determination that he would remain a dangerous threat – a requirement for a capital sentence in Texas – was based on testimony by an expert witness who relied on data later found to be false. And it was ultimately wrong, his attorneys argued, as shown by Gonzales’ redemption behind bars and his earlier attempts to donate a kidney.