Texas Set to Execute a Death Row Prisoner Despite the Changed Opinion of the Same Expert Who Once Called Him a ​“Future Danger”

In 2006, Ramiro Gonzales (pic­tured as a child) con­fessed to the mur­der, kid­nap­ping, and rape of Bridget Townsend and was sen­tenced to death. Texas death sen­tenc­ing pro­ce­dures unique­ly require cap­i­tal juries to pre­dict whether a defen­dant is like­ly to com­mit future acts of vio­lence. At Mr. Gonzales’ tri­al, psy­chi­a­trist Dr. Edward Gripon tes­ti­fied for the state and told the jury that Mr. Gonzales ​“has demon­strat­ed a ten­den­cy to want to con­trol, to manip­u­late, and to take advan­tage of cer­tain oth­er indi­vid­u­als,” opin­ing that he would cause harm to oth­ers in the future. That opin­ion formed the basis of the jury’s sen­tence of death. Mr. Gonzales’ exe­cu­tion is now sched­uled for June 26, 2024. 

But in September 2021, Dr. Gripon met with Mr. Gonzales on death row and deter­mined his pre­dic­tion about him was wrong. ​“Ramiro [Gonzales] doesn’t try to lie his way out… If this man’s sen­tence was changed to life with­out parole, I don’t think he’d be a prob­lem,” Dr. Gripon told The Marshall Project. Citing his reliance on a now-debunked study and invalid sta­tis­tics, Dr. Gripon wrote fol­low­ing this sec­ond eval­u­a­tion that ​“it is [his] opin­ion, to a rea­son­able psy­chi­atric prob­a­bil­i­ty, that [Mr. Gonzales] does not pose a threat of future dan­ger to soci­ety. According to The Marshall Project, this is the only time Dr. Gripon has ever changed his opin­ion about a defen­dant in a death penalty case. 

Mr. Gonzales was sched­uled to be exe­cut­ed in July 2022, but two days ahead of his exe­cu­tion date, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals (TCCA) stayed his exe­cu­tion and direct­ed the tri­al court to review a claim that Dr. Gripon tes­ti­fied and pre­sent­ed false, debunked sta­tis­tics. Despite Dr. Gripon’s changed opin­ion, the tri­al court rec­om­mend­ed that the TCCA dis­miss Mr. Gonzales’s claim because of procedural bars.

Throughout the 18 years that Mr. Gonzales has spent on death row, he has expressed remorse for his crime. ​“I know my apolo­gies can­not even begin to bring you peace of mind and heal­ing, but I feel that I should still tell you how sor­ry I am for the pain and anguish you have suf­fered because of my actions,” Mr. Gonzales wrote in an apol­o­gy let­ter to the Townsend fam­i­ly in 2022. ​“I am sor­ry, deeply sor­ry, that I took what was so pre­cious to you and I know there’s noth­ing I can do or say to make it bet­ter,” Mr. Gonzales added. While on death row, Mr. Gonzales became one of the first mem­bers of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice Faith Based Program on Death Row, where par­tic­i­pants live in spe­cial hous­ing and take reli­gion class­es. In this pro­gram, Mr. Gonzales acts as a peer men­tor and a coor­di­na­tor for the Faith Based Program, men­tor­ing fel­low death row pris­on­ers. Mr. Gonzales first turned to reli­gion in Medina County Jail while await­ing tri­al, after a vis­it­ing preach­er gift­ed him a Bible and has since earned the equiv­a­lent of a bachelor’s degree from a theological seminary.

Mr. Gonzales’ clemen­cy appli­ca­tion point­ed to his par­tic­i­pa­tion in the death row pro­gram and over­all reli­gious jour­ney. His clemen­cy appli­ca­tions ques­tioned, ​“Is clemen­cy called for in a case where exe­cut­ing [Mr. Gonzales] is the judi­cial­ly imposed sanc­tion for a heinous crime, but grant­i­ng him mer­cy would save souls that would oth­er­wise be lost?” In October 2023, Texas was set to exe­cute Will Speer, the first coor­di­na­tor of the Faith Based Program, who was denied clemen­cy despite his detailed show­ing of his reli­gious work and growth. His exe­cu­tion was stayed just hours ahead of the sched­uled time for rea­sons unre­lat­ed to clemen­cy. Mr. Speer has since spo­ken with the Texas Observer about the impor­tance of the Faith Based Program and influ­ence of peo­ple like Mr. Gonzales. Mr. Speer told the Observer that the pro­gram is ​“not just some fluff that sounds good, [but] life chang­ing, life grow­ing, life giv­ing class­es,” and that it’s dif­fi­cult when one of the coor­di­na­tors gets an exe­cu­tion date. ​“These are men who are new to change, some new to faith… They need lots of help to see things in a new light, or a dif­fer­ent per­spec­tive,” Mr. Speer added.

Mr. Gonzales’ clemen­cy appli­ca­tion high­light­ed his reli­gious jour­ney and includ­ed infor­ma­tion about his tumul­tuous child­hood, includ­ing abuse and men­tal health issues. According to the peti­tion, Mr. Gonzales was giv­en up for adop­tion, sex­u­al­ly abused as a child, and began using drugs at age 15 to cope with the death of his aunt. By the time Mr. Gonzales dropped out of school at age 16, he was still in eighth grade. Mr. Gonzales’ attor­neys told the Observer that his clemen­cy appli­ca­tion high­lights the rea­sons he should be spared and allowed to con­tin­ue to be able to min­is­ter to oth­er death row pris­on­ers. ​“In the free world, min­is­ters and faith lead­ers are viewed as pil­lars of the com­mu­ni­ty… In the same way [Mr. Gonzales] is a leader in prison soci­ety,” said Thea Posel, an attor­ney for Mr. Gonzales. ​“He is deserv­ing of mer­cy for numer­ous rea­sons, but faith is inex­tri­ca­bly inter­twined with all of them, as it is an essen­tial part of who he is and how he has attempt­ed to atone for his sins and the pain he has caused,” added Ms. Posel.

Mr. Gonzales’ clemen­cy appli­ca­tion was denied on June 24, 2024, by a vote of 7 to 0.