In Texas, Ramiro Gonzales was killed by lethal injection Wednesday. The 41-year-old Gonzales was sentenced to death in 2006 for the sexual assault and murder of 18-year-old Bridget Townsend, CNN reports. The U.S. Supreme Court denied Gonzales’ appeal without comment, and despite the fact that an expert witness in the penalty phase of Gonzales’ trial, who testified Gonzales had an antisocial personality disorder testified later that he relied on faulty data and retracted his original testimony. Texas law requires juries to find capital defendants would continue to be dangerous in order for them to be eligible for the death penalty.
In Oklahoma, 66-year-old Richard Rojem was executed on Thursday. He was sentenced to death for the rape and murder of his seven-year-old stepdaughter Layla Dawn Cummings in July 1984. He is the second person killed by the state this year. The first, Michael Dewayne Smith, was executed in April.
In Missouri, the state killed David Hosier earlier this month, its second execution this year. The 69-year-old Hosier maintained he didn’t kill Angela and Rodney Gilpin in 2009 during an armed robbery, CBS News reports. Angela Gilpin and Hosier had been in a relationship, and the prosecution argued he killed the couple out of jealousy. U.S. Reps Cori Bush and Emmanuel Cleaver, both Missouri residents, urged Gov. Mike Parson to grant Hosier clemency based on his medical issues and mental health challenges, but Parson denied his application.
Also in Missouri, Livingston County Presiding Judge Ryan Horsman overturned the murder conviction of Sandra Hemme, who was convicted of killing Patricia Jeschke in 1980, the Innocence Project reports. Hemme, “the longest-known wrongly incarcerated woman in the U.S.,” according to IP, was imprisoned for 43 years. “No witnesses linked Ms. Hemme to the murder, the victim, or the crime scene. She had no motive to harm Ms. Jeschke, nor was there any evidence that the two had ever met. Neither did any physical or forensic evidence link Ms. Hemme to the killing,” IP stated. Hemme had given a false confession while she was being treated at the state psychiatric hospital. Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey is fighting Hemme’s release and has asked the appeal court to review the judge’s decision before she is released in mid-July.
In Alabama, state Attorney General Steve Marshall is asking the state supreme court to authorize the killing of Carey Dale Grayson by nitrogen hypoxia, the Montgomery Advertiser reports. The 49-year-old Grayson was 19 when he and three friends killed Vickie Deblieux in February 1994. All four were convicted of capital murder, but after the U.S. Supreme Court banned executions of defendants who were younger than 18 at the time of the crime, the other three who were younger than 18 were resentenced to life in prison without parole. If the state supreme court gives the go-ahead, Gov. Kay Ivey will set a date for Grayson’s execution. Grayson’s would be the third state killing by nitrogen hypoxia. Kenneth Eugene Smith was the first in January, during which witnesses said he writhed and convulsed for four minutes, disputing Alabama DOC Commissioner John Q. Hamm’s insistence it was a “textbook” execution. The second nitrogen execution is scheduled for September 27, when the state plans to kill Alan Eugene Miller.
