WFCN –
Ruben Gutierrez will be executed for the murder of a woman that occurred more than twenty years ago; the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles has rejected his mercy request.
In a statement, the board said they “have completed their consideration” of the request as well as a “full and careful review of the application and any other information filed with the application, a majority of the Board has decided not to recommend a Commutation of Death Sentence to Lesser Penalty or in the alternative a 90-day Reprieve of Execution.”
The murder of 85-year-old Escolastica Harrison in her trailer in Brownsville the previous year was carried out by Gutierrez in 1999. Gutierrez was 21 years old at the time of the crime.
He shared the belief of two other defendants that the woman had concealed more than $500,000 in a home safe. They stole $56,000 after brutally assaulting her and stabbed her in the head
After years of rejection from both federal and state authorities, Gutierrez seemed to have run out of options. Just one hour before a scheduled execution in 2020 was to have taken place, the U.S. Supreme Court granted a request to allow a religious advisor into the execution chamber, thereby postponing the execution. But eventually, things progressed.
If carried out successfully, Gutierrez’s execution would make three for Texas so far this year. Late in June, the state’s most recent execution occurred when Ramiro Gonzalez was administered a fatal injection for the rape and murder of a woman in 2011.
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The state’s Department of Criminal Justice announced that Gonzalez was pronounced dead at 6:50 p.m. on June 27 after being administered a deadly dose of pentobarital. In Medina County, west of San Antonio, he confessed to the abduction and rape of a Texas lady named Bridget Townsend and gave authorities the location of her remains; he was already serving a life sentence for the same crime from 2002.
After decades on death row for rape and murder, Ramiro González is executed in Texas.
The victim attempted to stop González from stealing narcotics from her boyfriend’s house in 2001, when they were both 18 years old. Townsend would have turned 41 years old on the day of his execution.
González expressed his deepest condolences to Townsend’s family in his farewell statement, which he shared with prison officials and loved ones, praising “the opportunity to become responsible, to learn accountability and to make good.” He elaborated by saying that he was determined to make amends and accept responsibility for his crimes throughout his time on death row.
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