Despite a district attorney’s efforts to halt his lethal injection, a Texas death row inmate whose case changed the role of spiritual advisors in execution chambers nationwide was put to death today.
The state prison in Huntsville executed 38-year-old John Henry Ramirez. He was found guilty of the 2004 slaying of Pablo Castro, 46, who was working at a Corpus Christi convenience store and taking out the trash.
According to the prosecution, Ramirez stole Castro of $1. 25 before stabbing him 29 times.
After a three-day drug binge, Ramirez and two women committed a series of robberies during which Castro was killed. After running away to Mexico, Ramirez was apprehended 32 years later.
Ramirez argued that his religious freedom was being infringed because state prison regulations forbade his pastor from speaking and caressing him as he was being put to death. His execution and others’ executions were postponed as a result of that difficulty.
The US Supreme Court ruled with Ramirez in March, ruling that states must respect the requests of death row convicts who want their religious leaders to pray over them and touch them during executions.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles unanimously decided against Ramirez’s request to have his death sentence reduced on Monday. Ramirez had exhausted all avenues for appeal, according to his lawyer, and the US Supreme Court had not received a last petition to stay the execution.
Ramirez had someone pray for him as he died, but Castro did not have the same opportunity, according to Mark Skurka, the senior prosecutor at Ramirez’s 2008 trial.
Pablo Castro will likely eventually receive the justice that his family has wanted for so long, despite the legal hurdles, according to Skurka, who later worked as the district attorney for Nueces County before retiring.
Seth Kretzer, Ramirez’s lawyer, stated that while he had sympathy for Castro’s family, his client’s struggle was about defending everyone’s right to practise their religion freely.
Ramirez wasn’t asking for anything novel; rather, he was asking for something that has long been a part of jurisprudence, according to Kretzer. Even Nazi war criminals, according to him, received ministers before being put to death after World War II.
That wasn’t an indication that we were handing the Nazis any favours, Kretzer insisted.
“The relative moral strength of the captors is reflected in the provision of religious administration at the time of death.”
Dana Moore, Ramirez’s spiritual guide, was reportedly given permission to wield a Bible in the execution chamber, something that had not before been authorised, according to Kretzer.
In April, Ramirez’s case underwent a new development when Nueces County District Attorney Mark Gonzalez sought a judge to revoke the death warrant and postpone the execution on the grounds that it had been issued in error.
Gonzalez stated that he finds the death penalty to be “unethical.”
Gonzalez said he thinks the death penalty is one of the “many things wrong with our justice system” during a roughly 20-minute Facebook live broadcast. Gonzalez declared that while in office, he would not pursue the death penalty.
When contacted by phone or email for comment, he did not respond.
Four of Castro’s children submitted a motion in April asking that Ramirez’s execution order be upheld.
Fernando Castro, one of his sons, made the motion on his behalf and said, “I want my father to finally have his justice as well as the peace to finally move on with my life and let this nightmare be finished.”
Gonzalez asked the judge to change the execution date, but the motion was denied in June. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected the motion last month without even considering it.
Ramirez was the 11th prisoner to be executed in the US and the third to be executed in Texas this year.
Texas has two more executions planned for this year, both in November.
Inmate executed in Texas for killing a man for $1.25
About Author
