The execution of Ramiro Gonzales for a murder case that was scheduled for this Wednesday was suspended by the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals because the death sentence included the erroneous testimony of an expert, according to US media.
Gonzalez, 39, had requested a delay in his execution, among other things, so that he could donate his kidney to someone who needs it.
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The inmate was sentenced to die by lethal injection for the kidnapping, rape and murder of Bridget Townsend in Medina County in 2001, when they were both 18 years old.
The Court of Appeals considered that the sentence should be reviewed after the forensic psychiatrist Edward Gripon released a report in May in which he recognized that his testimony in the trial carried out in 2006 was incorrect in the sense that a sexual aggressor would most likely reoffend .
To issue a death sentence after a guilty verdict, a jury must determine that a criminal is likely to reoffend.
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Since his incarceration, prison officials have witnessed the favorable change in the inmate’s behavior and willingness to do good after the crimes of his youth.
A spiritual adviser said Gonzales expressed a desire to donate a kidney to a sick member of his congregation, but his blood type was not compatible with that of the potential recipient.
Gonzales’s lawyers asked Texas Gov. Greg Abbott in June to stay the execution for 30 days to find another potential recipient. The Republican had not responded to the request when the Court of Appeals issued its ruling.
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Lawyers had also tried to stop the execution, arguing that there are numerous studies that propose raising eligibility for the death penalty to 21 years, since before that age the part of the brain that allows impulse control is not yet fully developed.
The case will now return to Medina County, where local authorities will evaluate the weight of Gripon’s testimony. Gonzales’s guilt is not in dispute, only a death sentence rather than life in prison without the possibility of parole.
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from Efe
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