A Texas inmate expected to be put to death within two weeks has asked for his execution to be adjourned so he can donate a kidney.
Ramiro Gonzales is expected to receive a lethal injection on July 13 for the fatal shooting of 18-year-old Bridget Townsend, a southwestern Texas woman whose remains were found nearly two years after they were found. she disappeared in 2001.
In a letter sent Wednesday, Gonzales’ attorneys Thea Posel and Raoul Schonemann asked Republican government Greg Abbott to grant a 30-day reprieve so that the inmate can be considered a living donor “to someone in urgent need of a kidney transplant. .”
His attorneys have filed a separate petition with the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles for a 180-day postponement over the kidney donation.
In their request to Abbott, Gonzales’ lawyers included a letter from Cantor Michael Zoosman, an ordained Jewish cleric from Maryland who has corresponded with Gonzales.
“I have no doubt that Ramiro’s desire to be an altruistic kidney donor is not motivated by a last-minute attempt to stop or delay his execution. I will go to my grave and believe in my heart that this is something Ramiro wants to do to make his soul right with his God,” Zoosman wrote.
