John Henry Ramirez executed for murdering Pablo Castro

John Henry Ramirez, a former US Marine and Texas inmate at the centre of a legal battle over the religious rights of condemned prisoners in the United States, was executed on Wednesday, October 5, 2022, for the stabbing murder of a convenience store clerk in 2004.

The Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a written statement that John Henry Ramirez died at 6:41 p.m. central time in the state’s death chamber in Huntsville.

Ramirez won the right to have his Christian pastor lay hands on him and pray aloud as he died by lethal injection from the United States Supreme Court. It was unclear whether or not this occurred.

Ramirez, 38, was sentenced to death for fatally stabbing Pablo Castro during a robbery in Corpus Christi in 2004 that netted him $1.25.

In his final words, Ramirez expressed “regret and remorse” for his actions and expressed hope that his execution would help the Castro family find closure.

The execution occurred seven months after the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in Ramirez’s favour in his case against the state of Texas, which denied his request for pastoral care and prayer as he died.