Ramiro Gonzales is scheduled to be executed in Texas on June 26, 2024 in revenge for his murder of Bridget Townsend.

Ramiro Gonzales was denied habeas relief by Texas' top court, the Court of Criminal Appeals, in June. This comes after he was issued a stay of execution by the same court last July just a few days before he was scheduled for execution.  Efforts to allow him the opportunity to donate a kidney before he is killed appear to have been dashed because the state now says he is medically ineligible, but will not provide details. A potential recipient had been matched (video), however that opportunity may have been missed.

The Court issued a stay last year because the doctor who testified to his "future dangerousness" at the sentencing portion of Ramiro's trial recanted his opinion and argued that Ramiro deserved to live. In Texas, in order to be death-eligible, the condemned must be a "future danger" to society- something that is nearly impossible to accurately predict. Despite Ramiro no longer meeting one of the fundamental requirements to be eligible for the death penalty in Texas, it appears Texas may be gearing up again to kill him.

Ramiro is scheduled to be executed for the murder of Bridget Townsend, a crime he committed when he had barely turned 18 years old. At the time, he was reeling from drug addiction and traumatized by the aftermath of his childhood, which was marred by physical and sexual abuse, poverty, and neglect. His childhood had left psychological scars so extreme that he did not want to live.

But after 17 years on death row, Ramiro is a transformed human being. Everyone who has met Ramiro - from correctional officers to doctors, experts, lawyers, advocates, and loved ones - attests that he is a living and breathing example of our human capacity to transform and heal.

Even the state’s trial expert, who once testified that Ramiro was a future danger to society, has said he was wrong: Ramiro is not a danger. Ramiro should live.

Not only has Ramiro worked hard to overcome his own trauma, he’s also done immense work to reflect on his actions, take accountability for the pain he inflicted on others, and seek redemption and atonement through his spiritual practice and his conduct in prison.

Ramiro has sought to become an in vivo kidney donor, and donate his kidney as a life-giving act. He took concrete steps to give his kidney, and entered the donation process with the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston., where doctors not only approved Ramiro as a donor, but described him as an “excellent candidate.” Ramiro has a rare B blood type, and kidney-failure patients with this blood type often wait years - even up to a decade - for a kidney. Ramiro will not be able to donate his kidney after his execution because it will be contaminated with execution drugs.

Texas stands virtually alone in the United States in executing people who were teenagers at the time of their offense, leaving no space to consider the work Ramiro has done since then, and how much value he still has to add to this world. In fact, Texas executes more teenagers than any other state.

If you also believe in our human ability to change, and amount to much more than our worst moments, please sign the petition asking Governor Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles to do everything in their power to stop Ramiro's execution.

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