A man sentenced to loss of life for the homicide of a police officer was executed Wednesday night time in Texas regardless of suspicions of racism having tainted his trial.
The Texas Department of Criminal Justice confirmed that Wesley Ruiz, 43, was pronounced lifeless from a deadly injection on the penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas at 6:41 pm native time (1241 GMT).
Police officers chased Ruiz by means of the streets of the central Texas metropolis of Dallas in 2007, believing his automobile was concerned in a murder.
At the tip of the chase, Ruiz fired a shot at police officer Mark Nix who was attempting to interrupt the window of his automobile along with his baton. The shot killed Nix.
During his trial, Ruiz asserted that he feared for his life and fired in self-defense, native media reported. Nonetheless, jurors sentenced him to loss of life.
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Ruiz’s final phrases have been: “I would like to apologize to Mark and the Nix family. I hope this brings you closer.
“I wish to say to all my household and mates all over the world thanks for supporting me. To my children, stand tall and proceed to make me proud, don’t fear about me, I’m going to be OK. Alright Warden, I’m able to trip.”
In the years that followed Ruiz’s conviction, his lawyers launched several unsuccessful appeals.
As the execution date approached, lawyers argued in an emergency motion that jurors relied on “overtly racist” evidence and “blatantly anti-Hispanic stereotypes” in appraising Ruiz’s dangerousness.
One juror had described him as “an animal,” “a mad canine” and considered Hispanics at the trial to be “gang members,” they argued in court papers.
Their case was dismissed at trial and on appeal and was submitted for a last-ditch reprieve before the US Supreme Court.
Ruiz had also joined a lawsuit brought by several death row inmates in Texas, who accused the state Department of Criminal Justice of extending the expiration dates of lethal substances used for executions.
The use of old drugs, they say, risks causing unlawful suffering, since the US Constitution prohibits cruel and unusual punishment.
The authorities insisted that their shares of pentobarbital don’t pose an issue.
The Supreme Court didn’t keep the execution, making Ruiz the fourth convict to be executed this 12 months within the United States.
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