Several Baptists are among the evangelical Christian leaders urging clemency for Texas Death Row prisoner Ramiro Gonzales, who is scheduled to be executed June 26.
They include Jesse Rincones, executive director of the Convención Bautista Hispana de Texas; Stephen Reeves, executive director of Fellowship Southwest; Paul Basden, co-senior pastor of Preston Trail Community Church in Frisco; and Fisher Humphreys, professor of divinity emeritus at Samford University.
Gonzales was sentenced to death in 2006 for the 2001 kidnapping, sexual assault and murder of Bridget Townsend in Medina County when they both were 18 years old.
Dr. Edward Gripon, a forensic psychiatrist, testified at the time of his sentencing that Gonzales presented a future danger. However, Gripon later recanted and called for the sentence to be changed to life without parole.
In a June 3 letter to Gov. Greg Abbott and the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles, 11 evangelical Christians quote Gripon’s evaluation of Gonzales as “a significantly different person both mentally and emotionally.”
‘A wonderfully changed man’
Those who signed the letter insist Gonzales also is a different person spiritually after coming to faith in Christ. In January, he was selected as a peer coordinator and mentor for a faith-based pod in the Allan B. Polunsky Unit near Livingston.
“Ramiro has changed. Because he has changed, we believe the circumstances surrounding him should change as well,” they state, urging the governor and board to “spare the life of another Christian.”
The letter quotes Gonzales as speaking now of: “Love, mercy, grace, forgiveness. All these are acts of God. That’s what’s been so instrumental to my life.”
Gonzales’ spiritual advisers describe his ability to “connect with others and move them in love,” the letter states.
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The faith leaders also quote correctional officers on Texas Death Row, who described Gonzales as “sensitive,” “never problematic” and someone they “feel safe around.”
“Our prayers are with the family of Bridget Townsend, and we still hold that the answer to violence is not further violence. The cycle of violence can end here,” the letter states.
“Again, we ask that you grant clemency to Ramiro, a wonderfully changed man, and allow him to live out his life serving others.”
‘Working to better the lives of those around him’
In a petition for clemency submitted June 5, his attorneys argue Gonzales at the time he committed his crimes was “gripped by a serious addiction rooted in his exposure to drugs while still in the womb, compounded by the trauma and neglect that marked his childhood.”
In the petition, Gonzales is described in the intervening year as having “devoted himself to self-improvement, contemplation, and prayer, and with God’s hand on his shoulder has grown into a mature and peaceful adult.”
“With an understanding that his life on death row was part of God’s plan for him, Ramiro does not allow himself to be defined buy his past sins, but rather has dedicated himself to following a righteous path and working to better the lives of those around him,” the petition states.
The petition notes Gonzales feels a deep calling to minister to other men on Texas Death Row, urging them to reject violence and follow Christ.
“Despite the substantial harm his violent choices have caused, Ramiro is a living example of how one can become a good and moral person through an ongoing relationship with Christ,” the petition states.
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