JOHN Henry Ramirez was handed the death penalty by prosecutors in 2008.
He was executed on October 5, 2022, in the state's death chamber in Huntsville, where he planned to have his Christian pastor lay hands on him and audibly pray as he died by lethal injection.
Was John Henry Ramirez executed in Texas?
Ramirez's execution was initially halted after he claimed the state was violating his religious freedom by not letting his pastor lay hands on him at the time of his lethal injection.
The US Supreme Court blocked his execution about three hours after he could have been executed.
Ramirez was in a small holding cell a few feet from the Texas death chamber at the Huntsville Unit prison when he was told of the reprieve by Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark.
Clark said: “He was quiet when I let him know.
“He shook his head and said: ‘Thank you very much. God bless you.’”
But the execution took place seven months after the Supreme Court ruled 8-1 in Ramirez's favor in his case against the state of Texas.
He was pronounced dead at 6.41 pm local time on October 5, 2022.
Why is John Henry Ramirez on death row?
In 2004, Ramirez killed Pablo Castro – a Corpus Christi convenience store worker – during a robbery.
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Castro was taking out the trash when Ramirez slashed his throat and stabbed him more than two dozen times.
That night, Ramirez was with two women, Christina Chavez and Angel Rodriguez, who were both arrested.
Ramirez managed to escape and fled to Mexico.
But in 2008, the police captured him near Brownsville, Texas.
Is he still on death row?
Despite a life sentence, Ramirez delayed his execution multiple times and remained on death row.
Seth Kretzer, Ramirez’s lawyer, had argued the Texas Department of Criminal Justice was violating the death row inmate’s First Amendment rights to practice his religion by denying his request to have his pastor touch him and vocalize prayers when he was executed.
He called the ban on vocal prayer a spiritual “gag order”.
Kretzer said in court documents: “It is hostile toward religion, denying religious exercise at the precise moment it is most needed: when someone is transitioning from this life to the next.”
But he was executed in October 2022.
When was John Henry Ramirez executed?
He was executed on October 5, 2022, in the state's death chamber in Huntsville, where he planned to have his Christian pastor lay hands on him and audibly pray as he died by lethal injection.
Pastor Dana Moore, who had been Ramirez's spiritual adviser since 2016, believes death row inmates deserve to be treated "with a certain amount of dignity."
Moore, a pastor at Second Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, said: "John's sentence wasn't death and you can't have any meaningful contact
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"He is paying for his crime.
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