Ramiro Gonzales asked to postpone his execution. AP photo
Just under two weeks before the date of his execution, prisoner Ramiro Gonzales asked the governor of the US state of Texas in writing to allow him to postpone his death for a while longer. Wants become a kidney donor before your time comes.
Gonzales’ attorneys asked Governor Greg Abbott on Wednesday to delay the execution for a month so that their client can be considered a living donor “for someone who urgently needs a kidney transplant,” they explained.
Gonzales, 39, has a lethal injection to his name scheduled for July 13, as reported by the New York Post. He was sentenced to death for the murder of Bridget Townsend, an 18-year-old girl, on January 15, 2001.
According to authorities, Gonzales, who was also 18 at the time, kidnapped and sexually assaulted Townsend before shooting him. His body had disappeared for nearly two years before being found. Gonzales has been in prison since 2006.
According to the Post, attorneys Thea Posel and Raoul Schonem told Governor Abbott that a University of Texas transplant team found that Gonzales was an “excellent candidate” for donation due to his rare blood type.
“Almost all that’s left is surgery to remove Ramiro’s kidney,” a process that will take a month, lawyers told Abbott. They also sent the governor a letter from cantor Michael Zoosman, a Jewish cleric who has been in contact with the detainee.
“I have no doubt that Ramiro’s desire to be an altruistic kidney donor is not motivated by a last-minute attempt to stop or delay his execution,” he says.
“I will go to the grave believing in my heart that this is something Ramiro wants to do to help your soul be comfortable with your God“says Zoosman in his letter.
The New York newspaper also indicates that a previous Gonzales donation request was turned down earlier this year without the Texas Department of Criminal Justice providing an explanation.
The United Network for Organ Sharing, the agency commissioned by the federal government to manage the United States transplant system, has raised concerns about organ donations by death row inmates, including the possibility that organs may be seen “morally committed”.
51 migrants killed in Texas
About 51 migrants who had passed through Mexico, locked up, died this week a truck with temperatures of 40 degrees where they were abandoned on the outskirts of San Antonio, Texas. It is the worst episode of its kind in the history of the country.
Among the victims are children, who were brought alive to local hospitals due to severe heatstroke and dehydration, city officials said at an on-site press conference.
“The plight of migrants seeking refuge is always a humanitarian crisis,” San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg told reporters on Monday evening. “But tonight we are dealing with a terrible human tragedy. “We hope that those responsible for putting these people in such inhumane conditions will be prosecuted to the fullest extent permitted by law,” he added.
San Antonio is a major transit point for migrants heading from Texas to different parts of the United States. Tens of thousands of undocumented migrants have passed through the city in recent months.
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Source: Clarin
