Original subtitles

All right, so let's see.

Y'all can still hear me, right?

Y'all can still hear me?

All right.

If you are seeing this,

then obviously the state of Texas has murdered me.

I'm sorry that y'all had to go through that.

I just wanna say thank you

for being there for me all these years.

Thank you for everything, uh...

It's been... it's been rough,

but it's been good having y'all with me.

All y'all that stuck with me.

And once again, I'm sorry I had to go through this, but

my pain is over.

My suffering is over.

All of y'all that know me,

y'all know I made the most changes I could.

I bettered myself as much as I could,

and hopefully that's enough.

I love you.

♪ ♪

[distant sirens wailing]

[indistinct police radio chatter]

REPORTER: FBI and law enforcement across the country

on the lookout for this man.

REPORTER 2: A massive manhunt

with a coast guard chopper is underway.

[helicopter whirring]

REPORTER 3: Ramirez went on the run for nearly four years

before he was captured,

tried, convicted, and sentenced to death.

You have taken a life.

Yours is now on the line.

- How are you today? - Good. How are you going?

- Sure, please. - [register dings]

Thank you. Have a good night.

I was a happy kid.

I was a very happy kid. I was very goofy.

A goofball, you'd say.

I feel like the older I get,

the more I start to look like him.

You know? It's a striking resemblance.

I was 14.

I remember waking up

to police sirens and lights.

So it was confusing.

I was like, "What's going on? This is not normal."

I remember hearing my mother say.

[in Spanish]

Everything was just going really slow in slow motion.

I remember sneaking out of the house

and seeing his body on the ground.

I didn't really know that that was him.

What gave it away was the hat.

This hat is just...

When I was in the courtroom and the trial

and the crime scene photos came up.

I remember having to get out of the courtroom

and run to the restroom to vomit.

'Cause I thought I could handle it.

I stare at this picture a lot,

Hoping that it's someone else.

But it never will be anybody else.

John Henry Ramirez viciously murdered my father.

He should pay for what he did.

[birds squawking]

WOMAN: I believe John has been in God's hands

from the very beginning.

He's had three saves of execution,

and God has just worked things out.

We're going to sit in here.

When John was in jail,

he asked for the chaplain.

Chaplain was a member of my church,

and I had been teaching Bible study in the women's jail.

So the chaplain asked me,

"Would you be willing to go see John Henry?"

And I thought to myself, "What am I going to say?"

You know, this man stabbed somebody 29 times.

What am I gonna say to him?

I don't know what to say.

And so I said, "Lord, you just take over.

You tell me, you take over the conversation."

And he was so easy to talk to.

I've gone every single month since 2011,

except two times when I had knee surgery.

One month John asked me,

"Since all of my family has abandoned me,

"and you've always been there for me,

would you be my godmother?"

And I said, "Yes."

I was always in support of the death penalty,

but it took me getting to know him as a human being.

He is just not that person he was then.

He is not that person he was.

I have a whole stack of his poetry.

This one is, "Where did I go wrong?"

Where did I go wrong? I said.

Where did I go wrong in this life I lived

where I take that wrong turn to end up like this?

I used to get in trouble time and time again,

but not to the extent that my life would end.

Now these sinful ways I'm trying to leave in the past

even though I feel the present hitting me too fast.

And now I realize you gonna reap what you sow.

So at the end of my days as the chemicals flow,

as my life slips away and my body turns cold

there's only one thing that I feel you should know

I made the best of what was left

and I let my love show.

But no matter what

there's still one thing that I'll never know

and that's where did I go wrong,

go wrong, go wrong?

I said, "Where did I go so wrong?"

♪ ♪

[clock ticking]

I've been here for 14 years,

and so I've had four official dates.

You know what I mean?

And this is the only date that I'm not actually fighting.

Execution it's now for me.

It's a way for me to finally leave this place,

you know what I mean?

It's not a good way.

It's horrendous and heinous,

you know, but...

It's an out. I can be done.

I can stop hurting all the time.

I'll never be able to make amends for taking a life.

And I don't expect to ever go free.

Because I'm a murderer.

Cause, like, no matter what I do,

What does it mean?

I'll never overcome it.

GONZALEZ: I didn't know a lot about the death penalty.

Texas leads the kill count with, like, 522 executions.

We should all know that if we are imposing

these things on our community.

As the DA, we're in charge of things like life or death.

And that's heavy.

Looking at these photos of all the evidence that they took,

and it's really hard to make out,

but it seems to appear to be a lot of blood.

A lot of blood from a violent death.

And that's something that nobody should ever have to experience.

This the inventory of everything that was in

Mr. Castro's vehicle you see here.

He spent a lot of time in his... his van,

Fishing poles...

You know, gonna go fishing or had been.

Part of me would rather have not wanted to see any of this.

Because there's no way you could look at photos

where it says "In memory of a kind man,"

and not hit an emotional place where you realize

that that shouldn't have happened to him.

Then you start to learn more about

John Henry and all the things

that may have happened to him

to put him to that spot.

It seems like even before he went to trial

that he had this thought that he wanted just to die.

Because he spoke with an individual

who does evaluations for mental health issues.

And he said that Mr. Ramirez,

you know, wanted the death penalty.

My feeling would be that he was young

and he thought that that would be

the most honorable thing that he could do at that time

to show maybe he was sorry for what he did, right?

"Yo, I killed someone, you can kill me."

RAMIREZ: I hate playing that boo-hoo story type of aspect.

People be like, "You know, you had such a terrible childhood."

There's a whole bunch of people that grew up

in that type of lifestyle that aren't murderers.

So why didn't they end up like I ended up?

Because we each have our own free will.

The main source of what shaped me

is really my relationship with my mother.

My mother is very abusive,

physically, emotionally, verbally.

Child Protective Services took me away from her

when I was young.

'Cause she beat me with a vacuum cleaner

and split my head open.

[camera clicks]

In the type of environment I grew up with,

violence is glorified.

My uncle, he was in the gang life.

He was the one that introduced me to that type of lifestyle.

But you see, everyone goes to prison

or it gets hooked on dope.

I joined the military straight out of high school.

I actually loved it, man, it was awesome.

The pay, the base is great,

you know, everybody loves a serviceman.

And I was first class in everything.

But I got discharged for fighting one of my superiors.

[slide clicks]

Immediately jumped right back

into my old lifestyle.

Doing drugs

committing crimes left and right.

Basically being an ignorant, violent person.

To me it was just a fight.

And you know, when it got to a point

where I pulled out a knife, stabbing him.

He had 29 wounds.

19 of them were fatal in itself.

The other ten were defensive wounds where

he kept trying to grab the knife.

When I stabbed him in the throat and I saw that,

I just stood there, snapped me out of it,

and I realized he was gone.

I realized I went too far,

and it freaked me out so bad that I fled.

What animals and people are

to just kill him like that for a $1.25.

I just... I just wish they'd really do something with him.

I always wanted to make sure that

if no one else cared, I cared.

I wrote a letter to "America's Most Wanted."

They posted a picture.

That was the moment where I really paid attention

to who the killer was.

REPORTER: Cops in Corpus Christi, Texas,

say John Henry Ramirez, stabbed a man to death

during a botched robbery.

Ramirez is a former Marine and has this tattoo...

CASTRO: And that went on for several years

when I was younger, that he's never gonna be found.

Until one day, I got a call,

and the police chief was like,

"We've captured John Henry Ramirez."

And then I was like, "Oh."

And then I saw him in the courtroom.

I couldn't believe they actually did find him.

And I just had all the anger and hate in the world.

I wanted to just beat the living hell out of him.

You have taken a life.

Yours is now on the line.

Somebody kills your father,

you're gonna just forgive, and that's it?

Justice needs to be served.

I tried the first couple of dates

to set up a meeting with them,

and I've just never been able to do it.

I know I'm never asking for forgiveness.

'Cause, you know, I don't think I could forgive somebody

if they murdered one of my loved ones.

But I would try to get my point across

that I understand what I did.

Understand what I did.

And when I did it, I did it carelessly.

Just generally as a person,

I was just a bad person, you know?

And when I went to Mexico on the run,

I had a lot of time to think.

[thunder rumbling]

♪ ♪

I gained a whole new family.

Had a son.

It just changed my whole perspective on life.

His name's Israel, but we call him Izzy.

I never had my dad in my life.

So when I had Izzy, I always said,

"I'm gonna be a better father than my dad."

And then I ended up being so much worse.

He's 16 years old now.

He's a real square kid,

and I'm so grateful for that.

One of the courses in the faith-based section,

you have to write a letter to your victim.

And when I got to the end, I was like,

"I want you to know you made me a better person."

"I never meant to kill you,

"but because that happened,

"it's made me a better person

because it's made some vast changes in who I am."

You know? And it's a

it's a crappy way to say it,

Abut it's the truth.

[sniffles]

All right, guys, um,

good afternoon from the DA's Office.

I'm gonna wait just a few seconds to see

if anybody actually gets on Facebook Live.

Maybe we'll have a lot of people, maybe we won't.

But I wanted to discuss today or inform the community

of what's kind of been going on here at the office.

For quite some time I've

I have not agreed with the death penalty.

And not only will I not be seeking the death penalty,

I will not also be asking or setting dates of execution.

So my heart goes out to the Castro family.

There are no real winners in this case,

but I feel that in the interest of justice, that our office.

Shouldn't be involved in murdering Texas citizens.

♪ ♪

I got with Mr. Ramirez's attorney, Seth Kretzer,

and I joined him in a motion letting the court know

why we felt the date of execution should be withdrawn.

What I'm hoping is

we'll get some direction from a higher court,

and they'll say that I have all the authority

to withdraw that date of execution.

REPORTER: The proof is in the motion Gonzalez filed today.

He's trying to get Ramirez's execution date withdrawn.

GONZALEZ: I have, for a while now,

said that I don't believe in the death penalty.

My office is not going to seek the death penalty anymore.

REPORTER: Withdrawing or keeping the execution date

is in the hands of the judge from Ramirez's trial.

CASTRO: You can't get a real moment of time to heal properly.

Due process was done.

Now we're changing our moral judgment.

For us, the victims.

We thought it was gonna end with justice, right?

And now, ultimately, we're looking at

possibly no execution at all.

[echoing] You have taken a life.

Yours is now on the line.

TRUJILLO: Psalms 30:9 says,

"What will you gain if I die?

"If I sink into the grave?

"Can any dust praise you?

Can it tell of your faithfulness?"

I became the godmother of death row inmate John Henry Ramirez,

number 999-9544,

after he was abandoned by his family.

Last Friday, I spoke with the director of chaplaincy for

all of the Texas Department of Criminal justice.

The chaplain told me

that if John can get life without parole,

this would give him the opportunity

to spend the rest of his life as a field minister,

sharing the word of Jesus Christ to inmates

in the prison system,

wherever he is asked to serve.

I am asking you, Governor Abbott,

to give John Henry Ramirez

a commutation of his sentence

from death to life without parole.

So would you be willing to sign it?

- Sure. - I know you would.

Come on and sign it right here.

Just on the bottom, sign your name.

This Wednesday is the date that he is set to be executed.

So I'm driving to Brownsville today

to pick up Izzy, John's son.

We'll be driving to... um, to Livingston,

and we won't hear until Tuesday

or whenever the Lord tells the governor

what He wants him to do

and pray that the governor listens.

GONZALEZ: When I first got into office,

I didn't know a lot of what was right.

You have to make decisions.

Texas is just a different place.

I've gotten a lot of hate,

And, you know, I get it, it's understandable, right?

Like, this man was sentenced to death.

He killed somebody.

I don't know that execution is the right thing to do.

And I don't know if execution makes anything better.

TRUJILLO: Lord, I'm talking to you right now.

This is me, your daughter, Jen,

and I am asking you to put your arms around this car.

We know that you want us to go pick up Izzy.

And, Lord, you know that I would never say no

to Israel being there for his father.

MAN ON RADIO: Just like you.

Instead, just go worship a perfect God today

in a place filled with flawed people

who need grace as much as you do.

And me, I need it, too.

♪ ♪

♪ ♪

REPORTER: You're looking live right now.

We'll take you live there, yeah.

This is at the Walls Unit in Huntsville.

That actually inside is where the death chamber is,

where John Henry Ramirez's execution

is expected to be carried out anytime after 6:00 p.m.

[distant drums playing]

REPORTER: On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles

unanimously denied his request for clemency.

His attorneys say they've run out of legal options to appeal.

ISRAEL: Hello?

- WOMAN: Israel? - ISRAEL: Yes.

WOMAN: This is Denise at the Huntsville unit.

Would you like to speak to John Ramirez?

ISRAEL: Yes, ma'am.

What's up?

How are you?

I'm holding up fine.

How are you holding up?

- Yeah. - You know?

At the end of the line.

Yeah, so

[sniffles] Four

4:01.

Yeah.

[sniffles]

I love you, thank you for everything.

Bye.

I love you, too.

[sighs]

[distant drums playing]

REPORTER: Good evening and welcome

to "Execution Watch" on this October 5th.

This is the show that airs

every time the state of Texas

puts a condemned prisoner to death.

REPORTER: You tell us about growing up.

I mean, tell us about your family and all.

RAMIREZ: I don't want to do the same old song and dance.

Yeah, I had a bad childhood,

but a lot of people have bad childhoods

and they don't end up on death row, you know?

You're a part of my dad... my bad childhood.

REPORTER: Opening it up for you...

So that... would make myself be put on death row?

RAMIREZ: Typical childhood, you know?

I'm one of the few people that actually

has taken responsibility for the crime.

You didn't take responsibility.

You left for five years.

RAMIREZ: And considering, like,

a life sentence would be the other option.

Now, that's a real punishment.

They really wanted to punish this...

Yeah, that's what you were going for.

That's what you... he wanted this.

This is such a...

This is stupid.

Regardless a year ago,

he still felt what he would probably feel today

unless he had this huge change of swift, of mindset.

I don't know. Maybe I'm wrong here.

I don't know, but...

REPORTER: At this point, let's go ahead and go back

to Huntsville with Linda...

CASTRO: Okay, what are we doing here?

REPORTER: Tell us what's happened.

LINDA: The family just came across

and I guess they're getting in their car

to go to the chapel now.

REPORTER: If you're just joining us now,

John Ramirez is dead in Huntsville.

Let's bring it back here into the studio

with Larry Douglas, Pat McCann and Mike Gillespie.

That is...

So many things happened in this

I was told by

by John's godmother, Jan Trujillo, that

that religion really had become his cornerstone.

[turns off audio]

John Henry Ramirez is dead.

Do you know how weird that sounds?

[sniffles]

But a life was lost today.

A life was taken.

Too soon.

Just as it was when I was 14-years old.

And I'm not celebrating.

This isn't a moment to celebrate.

[crying]

[crying]

[sniffles]

♪ ♪

PRIEST: Folks, we leave this place,

and those of us with faith leave with hope,

[car door closes]

Oh...

[crying]

PRIEST: Celebrate life, but to skip the grieving

means that, well, you never loved him.

If you don't wanna grieve, then don't love,

and then you'll never feel the pain to grieve.

It is not a life I would recommend, though.

RAMIREZ: All of y'all that know me,

I know I made the most changes I could.

I bettered myself as much as I could and

hopefully that's enough.

I love y'all.

[birds chirping]

Okay?

It's not my job to judge him.

That was God's... Is God's.

I... I have to accept that and live that way.

So I will accept what, you know, his apology.

Take it with a grain of salt,

but I will accept it and.

I'm confused, you think I can have a minute?

Do you mind?

REPORTER: Yeah, of course.

[Castro exhales]

Oh, God.

[vomits]

[spits]

[exhales]

Okay, I'm sorry.

I accept this apology.

I accept it.

♪ ♪