In Texas on Wednesday, an American man was put to death for the 2001 killing of a woman.

Ramiro Gonzales was found guilty and given the death penalty in 2006 for the rape and killing of Bridget Townsend when the two were just eighteen years old.

The 41-year-old Gonzales was declared deceased at 6:50 p.m. local time (23:50 GMT). He died from a lethal injection.

"To the Townsend family, I’m sorry I can’t articulate, I can’t put into words the pain I have caused y’all, the hurt, what I took away that I cannot give back," Gonzales said in his final statement.


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Gonzales abducted, sexually assaulted, and fatally shot Townsend, the girlfriend of his drug dealer, in January 2001.

Before Gonzales admitted to the crime while being held in connection with another rape case, the case remained unsolved for eighteen months. He also provided the location of Townsend's remains to the authorities.

On Wednesday, the US Supreme Court denied Gonzales' attorney's request for a stay of execution.


Gonzales' execution is the eighth in the US overall and the second in Texas this year, excluding an execution that was postponed in Idaho in February because the execution's deadly dose was not administered by the required time.

In 2023, the US carried out 24 executions using lethal injection.

Of the 50 US states, 23 have abolished the death penalty. There is a moratorium on executions in six additional states: Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee.