A man was executed Wednesday night (1st) for the murder of a police officer in the state of Texas in the southern United States, despite suspicions of racism that influenced his verdict.
Wesley Ruiz, a 43yearold Latino man who was sentenced to death, received a lethal injection at Huntsville Penitentiary. He was pronounced dead at 18:41 (21:41 in Brasilia).
In 2007, Ruiz was being pursued in Dallas by police who suspected his vehicle was involved in a homicide.
At the end of the chase, he shot police officer Mark Nix, who was attempting to smash his car window with his baton. The bullet eventually killed the agent.
“I want to apologize to Mark and the Nix family (…) I want to say thank you to my family and friends around the world for your support. To my children, stay strong and keep making me proud. Don’t worry about me, I’m fine,” he said in his final statement.
“I’m ready to go,” Ruiz concluded before receiving the injection, the Texas Department of Justice said in a statement.
Wesley Ruiz (Photo: Handout / Texas Department of Criminal Justice / AFP) He is the fourth convict to be executed in the United States since the beginning of the year.During the trial, Wesley Ruiz stated that he feared for his life during the police chase and shot him dead in an act of “selfdefense,” according to the local press. The jury nevertheless sentenced him to death.
In the years that followed, his lawyers filed several unsuccessful appeals to challenge the verdict.
As the execution date drew near, they filed an urgent appeal, arguing that the jury had based its assessment of Ruiz’s dangerousness on “apparently racist” elements and “blatantly hostile stereotypes toward Latinos.”
His appeal was rejected at first instance and then referred to the Supreme Court, which at the last moment did not decide to stay the execution.
Wesley Ruiz has also been embroiled in a lawsuit filed by several inmates on Texas death row accusing state correctional facilities of extending expiration dates on lethal substances used in executions.