Ramiro Gonzales, an inmate of Texas due to be executed in less than two weeks, asked that his execution be delayed so that he can donate a kidney.
It is foreseen that Ramiro Gonzales receive one lethal injection on July 13 for fatally shooting Bridget Townsend18, a woman from Southwest Texas whose remains were found almost two years later of his disappearance in 2001.
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In a letter sent Wednesday, attorneys for GonzalesThea Posel and Raoul Schonemann, asked the Republican governor Greg Abbott let him grant a 30-day deferral for the inmate to be considered a living donor “for someone in urgent need of a kidney transplant”.
His attorneys have made a separate request to the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for a 180-day suspension related to the donation of kidney.
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In your application to Abbott, Gonzales’ attorneys included a letter from Michael Zoosman, an ordained Jewish clergyman from Maryland who has corresponded with Gonzales.
“I have no doubt that the desire to Ramiro to be a altruistic kidney donor it is not motivated by a last-minute attempt to stop or delay its execution. I will go to my grave believing in my heart that this is something that Ramiro wants to do to help his soul be right with his GodZoosman wrote.
The lawyers of Gonzales They say he has been determined to be an “excellent candidate” for donation following being evaluated by the transplant team at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. The evaluation found that Gonzales has a rare blood type, which means your donation might benefit someone who might have a hard time finding a match.
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“Pretty much all that remains is the surgery to remove Ramiro’s kidney. UTMB has confirmed that the procedure might be completed within a month,” Posel and Schonemann wrote to Abbott.
The policies of the Department of Criminal Justice Texas they allow inmates to make organ and tissue donations. Agency spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez said Gonzales was deemed ineligible following applying to be a donor earlier this year. She did not give a reason, but Gonzales’ attorneys said in her letter that the agency objected because of the pending execution date.
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles will vote on July 11 on Gonzales’ application to that agency.
The lawyers of Gonzales they have made a separate request asking the board to commute his death sentence to a lesser sentence.
They also asked that his execution not proceed if his spiritual adviser is unable to hold his hand and place another hand on his heart during his execution. A two-day federal trial on this request was scheduled to begin Tuesday in Houston.
Gonzales’ request to delay his execution for organ donation is rare among those on death row in the US.Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Friday.
In 1995, the convicted murderer Steven Shelton in Delaware he donated a kidney to his mother.
In 2013, the execution of Ronald Phillips in Ohio It was delayed so that his request to donate a kidney to his mother might be reviewed. Phillips’ request was denied later y he was executed in 2017.
Skeptics will think this is simply an attempt to delay execution. But if that was the case, I think I would see a lot of requests.”said Dunham, whose group takes no position on capital punishment but has criticized the way states carry out executions. “The history of executions in USA shows that people do not make offers of organ donations in order to delay an execution that is yet to take place.”
In a report, the United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit organization that serves as the nation’s transplant system under contract with the federal government, listed several ethical concerns regarding organ donations from sentenced prisoners. They include whether such donations might be linked to prisoners receiving preferential treatment or whether such organs might be morally compromised due to their ties to the death penalty.
