On June 20, 2022, Professor Raoul Schonemann and Professor Thea Posel joined with outside counsel Michael C. Gross to file a clemency petition at the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles on behalf of Ramiro Gonzales. Mr. Gonzales is scheduled to be executed on July 13, 2022. The clemency petition is pending.
Counsel for Mr. Gonzales present several arguments for clemency in his case. First, he was sentenced to death in part on an expert’s testimony that he would be a future danger in prison and that he had antisocial personality disorder, and that expert has now disavowed both aspects of his testimony. Second, the petition presents a wealth of mitigation evidence demonstrating Mr. Gonzales experienced extreme abuse and trauma throughout his childhood, much of which was not fully presented to the jury. Finally, the petition notes that Mr. Gonzales was just past his 18th birthday at the time of the crime, and he would have been ineligible for the death sentence 71 days earlier.
Link: 20-minute clemency video in support of the application