Mexican citizen executed in Texas for killings


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A Mexican citizen on death row in Texas was executed Wednesday night for the sledgehammer killings of his wife and two children more than 26 years ago.

Roberto Moreno Ramos was condemned for the 1992 deaths of his 42-year-old Leticia wife, 7-year-old daughter Abigail, and 3-year-old son Jonathan at their home in Progreso, located along the Mexico border.

When asked by the warden if he had a final statement, Ramos thanked the Mexican consulate for assisting with appeals in his case and said he was grateful for "the humane treatment I got in prison in Texas."

"I'm getting my gold watch that it took the governor 30 years to forge," he said without elaborating. "Thank you God, Lord, send me a cart I'm ready."

The 64-year-old Ramos took a couple of deep breaths, sputtered once and began snoring. Within seconds, all movement stopped.

Eleven minutes later, at 9:36 pm CST, Ramos was pronounced dead.

He became the 21st inmate put to death this year in the US and the 11th given to the injection in Texas, the nation's busiest capital punishment state. No friends or relatives of Ramos or his victims witnessed the execution.

In the United States, Mexican citizens have been arrested in the United States, and they have never been told that they are in the United States.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday night the way for the punishment when it is denied. Ramos 'attorney on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to stop his execution, arguing that Ramos' constitutional laws were violated persuaded jurors to spare his life.

Three retired justices who had served on the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals filed documents with the Supreme Court on Wednesday in support of stopping the execution. The ex-judges alleged the appeals court appointed an incompetent appellate attorney who early in the post-conviction process failed to investigate Ramos' case.

Also Wednesday, a federal judge in Austin dismissed Ramos' request to block the execution. Ramos filed against the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals a day earlier. The following claims were made in the past and had not been allowed.

The 5th U.S. Court of Appeals and the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals.

The Texas Board of Pardons and Words on Monday declined to recommend a six-month reprieve.

In short documents, Ramos' attorney attorney, Danalynn Recer, had argued Ramos suffered from bipolar disorder most of his life, including during the time of his family's killings, as well as his ability to control his impulses and regulate his emotions .

Recer said Ramos was also brutally beaten by his father.

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Ramos was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and grew up in Guadalajara and Tijuana before his family moved to the United States in 1970.

"No fact-finder or decision-maker entrusted with Mr. Moreno Ramos' life has been provided with evidence of (his) 'various human frailties' to assist them in dispensing the most severe punishment under law," Recer said.

But the Texas Attorney General 's Office said Ramos' death sentence was appropriate due to his "violent and dangerous nature.

Authorities said Ramos bludgeoned his family members and then buried them his home's bathroom floor so he could marry the woman he was having an extramarital affair with at the time.

In short filings, the attorney general's office is underlined by Ramos 'then-19-year-old son, who told the jurors at Ramos' 1993 trial that his father "would continue to commit criminal acts of violence."

In 2004, the International Court of Justice in The Hague, Netherlands, found Ramos was part of a group of 52 Mexican citizens awaiting execution in the U.S. who were not advised of their consular rights under the Vienna Convention when first arrested. It recommended that they should try to determine whether they would have affected their cases. Then-President George W. Bush directed states to reopen the cases.

But the Supreme Court in 2008 overruled Bush's directive, saying only

Including Ramos, six Mexican citizens have been executed in Texas, according to the Mexican government.

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Lozano reported from Houston.

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