HOUSTON An inmate of the Texasus United States, who was due to be sentenced to death in just over a week has asked for his execution to be postponed so he can donate a kidney.
Ramiro Gonzales is scheduled to receive a lethal injection on July 13 for filming Bridget Townsendethen 18, a Southwest Texas woman whose remains were found nearly two years after her disappearance in 2001.
In a letter last Wednesday, the 29th, Gonzales’ attorneys Thea Posel and Raoul Schonemann asked the Republican governor Gregory Abbott Granting a 30day suspension for the prisoner to be considered a Living donation “for someone in urgent need of a kidney transplant”.
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Image provided by the Texas Department of Justice shows prisoner Ramiro Gonzales, who is due to be sentenced to death in less than two weeks. Gonzales has asked that his execution be temporarily postponed so he can donate a kidney. Photo: Texas Department of Criminal Justice via AP
His attorneys have filed a separate application with the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole for a 180day suspension related to the kidney donation.
In their inquiry to Abbott, Gonzales’ attorneys included a letter from Singer Michael Zoosman, an ordained Maryland Jewish minister who corresponded with Gonzales.
“I have no doubt that Ramiro’s desire to be an altruistic kidney donor is not motivated by a lastminute attempt to prevent or delay his execution. I will go to my grave believing in my heart that this is something Ramiro wants to do to align his soul with his God,” Zoosman wrote.
Lawyers said he was named an “excellent candidate” for donation after being evaluated by the University of Texas Medical Department (UTMB) transplant team in Galveston. The assessment revealed that Gonzales has a rare blood type, meaning your donation could benefit someone who may be struggling to find a match.
“There’s practically the surgery to remove Ramiro’s kidney. UTMB has confirmed that the process can be completed within a month,” Posel and Schonemann wrote to Abbott.
Texas Department of Justice guidelines allow inmates to donate organs and tissue. Agency spokeswoman Amanda Hernandez said Gonzales was declared ineligible after he applied to be a donor earlier this year. She didn’t give a reason, but Gonzales’ lawyers said in their letter that the agency objected because the execution date was imminent.
Abbott’s office did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is expected to vote on Gonzales’ motion on July 11. The lawyers made a separate motion asking the council to commute his death sentence to a lesser sentence.
They also demanded that his execution not proceed unless his spiritual advisor could hold his hand and put his other hand on his heart during the execution. A twoday federal trial on that motion is scheduled to begin Tuesday in Houston.
Gonzales’ request to delay his execution for organ donation is rare among US death row inmates, Robert Dunham, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center, said Friday.
In 1995, convicted murderer Steven Shelton donated a kidney to his mother in Delaware.
In 2013, Ohio’s execution of Ronald Phillips was postponed so that his application to donate a kidney to his mother could be reviewed. Phillips’ request was later denied and he was executed in 2017.
“Skeptics will think this is simply an attempt to delay the execution. But if that were the case, I think there would be a lot of inquiries,” said Dunham, whose group does not comment on the death penalty but does criticize the way states carry out executions. “The history of executions in the United States shows that people don’t make offers of organ donation with the aim of delaying an execution that is still going on.”
In a report, the United Network for Organ Sharing, a nonprofit that operates as the country’s transplant system on behalf of the federal government, lists several ethical concerns about organ donation from convicted prisoners. These include whether such donations may be linked to prisoners receiving preferential treatment, or whether such facilities may be morally compromised because of their links to the death penalty.