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In Cold Blood

On February 2nd 2017, John Henry Ramirez (32) is scheduled for execution by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas.\n\n\n\nConvicted of committing a Capital Murder in 2004, he was sentenced to death, by Judge Bobby Galvan in Corpus Christi, Texas in 2008 for a robbery that netted him and his two female accomplices, lovers Angela Rodriguez and Christina Chavez, a grand total of $1.25.\n\n\n\nHis victim Pablo Castro, a Mexican immigrant convenience store worker with young children, was left for dead from fatal stab wounds as the former US Marine, went on the run to Mexico, becoming one of America’s most wanted.\n\n\n\nProtected by a Mexican Cartel for four years, Ramirez was eventually caught in an FBI sting on the U.S. border four years later. His capture ended years of torment for Pablo Castro’s traumatised children. Pablo’s youngest boy, Fernando was 11 when he was brutally murdered. Taken to the scene of the crime, Fernando recounts how seeing his fathers body, soaked in blood, had a lasting impact on his life and how he’s taken a painstaking path to overcome his phobia of blood to become a paramedic and save people like his father, who are the victims of violent crime. \n\n\n\nHis older brother Aaron, a Mixed Martial Arts fighter, tells of his hurt, rape and attempted suicide after losing his estranged father and his subsequent hate for his dad’s killer. Both want retribution and execution for their father’s killer and now that an execution date has finally been set.\n\n\n\nWhen John Henry Ramirez’ trial commenced in December 2008, his accomplices Christina Chavez and Angela Rodriguez had already been sentenced to 25 years and life respectively for their parts in the robbery and murder. All three were high on a cocktail of anti-depressant drugs including Xanax, vodka and marijuana. The evidence against Ramirez was considered overwhelming: witness testimony and DNA from blood that matched both him, and his victim, Castro. The guilty phase of the trial was over quickly; Ramirez was found guilty. \n\n\n\nIt was the punishment phase of the trial where there was controversy: Ramirez instructed his lawyers not to put on a mitigation defense against the death penalty. They obeyed their clients’ orders and did not mount a mitigation case for him. Ramirez claimed that he partly did not want one because he did not want his childhood and family background dissected in court. \n\n\n\nInstead, he instructed them to recite from the bible: \

Source: BBC 1