Suspicion of racism had overshadowed his trial. An American man sentenced to death for the murder of a police officer is scheduled to be executed in Texas on Wednesday evening. Wesley Ruiz, a 43-year-old Hispanic, will receive a lethal injection at Huntsville Penitentiary unless the United States Supreme Court grants him a last-minute stay.
In 2007, he was being pursued in Dallas by police who suspected his vehicle was involved in a homicide. At the end of a chase, he fired a shot at a police officer who was trying to smash his car window with his baton. The bullet killed that agent. During his trial, Wesley Ruiz claimed he feared for his life and shot in a gesture of “self-defense,” the local press recalled. The jury nevertheless sentenced him to the death penalty.
An “animal”, “a rabid dog”
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 motion, arguing that the jury had based its assessment of the dangerousness of Wesley Ruiz’s death on “overtly racist” elements and “blatantly hostile stereotypes toward Hispanics.”
One of the jurors called him an “animal,” “a rabid dog,” and viewed the Hispanics present at the trial as “gang members,” they pleaded in court documents. Her appeal was dismissed at first instance on appeal and is now before the United States Supreme Court.
Expired lethal substances
Wesley Ruiz has also joined a lawsuit brought by several Texas death row inmates accusing state prisons of postponing the expiration date of lethal substances used in executions.
In her opinion, doing so risks unlawful suffering, since the constitution prohibits “inhumane punishments.” The authorities assure that their pentobarbital stocks are not a problem. If he doesn’t get it right, Wesley Ruiz will become the fourth convict to be executed in the United States since the beginning of the year.