Justices on Monday sent the case back to the trial court to consider the merits of the claim. Two other claims were rejected on examination. CNN reached out to Gripon for comment and did not immediately receive a response. Gonzalez’s execution was scheduled for Wednesday. A day before filing their motion, Gonzalez’s lawyers had requested a stay of execution in a June 29 letter to Gov. Greg Abbott, writing in part that Gonzalez’s request to donate an organ to a stranger was “consistent with his efforts to atone for his crimes.” Since then, at least two “preliminarily compatible” kidney recipients have been identified, including a cancer survivor in Bellingham, Washington, with the same rare blood type as Gonzales who spent four years on dialysis “hoping for a life-saving kidney transplant.” The inmate’s attorneys wrote Monday to the governor in a letter shared with CNN. “It seems almost impossible, but God moves in mysterious ways,” the potential recipient, Judy Frith, wrote in a letter Sunday to Abbott that Gonzalez’s attorneys submitted with theirs. “Whether Mr. Gonzalez would be able to donate to me or not, I cannot emphasize enough what a valuable gift you would be giving someone if you allowed Mr. Gonzalez the opportunity to donate his kidney.” CNN has reached out to the governor’s office for comment. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice, which allowed Gonzalez to be evaluated for organ donation, has opposed Gonzalez’s donation efforts because of his impending execution date, his attorneys wrote.
“He still wants to save a life”
Gonzalez first tried to donate his kidney to a member of a Jewish congregation in Maryland he had learned about through correspondence with its religious leader. But his rare blood type meant he wasn’t a match. Since then, he has sought to make an altruistic kidney donation, that is, to donate his kidney without a known or intended recipient. But he was deemed ineligible under the state Department of Criminal Justice’s health care policy, a department spokesman confirmed July 3 to CNN. The agency doesn’t allow an altruistic kidney donation because it could introduce an “uncertain timeline, potentially interfering with the court-ordered execution date” and doesn’t guarantee coverage, Gonzales’ lawyers said in a statement. “He still wants to save a life,” the Rev. Michael Zusman, the ordained Jewish clergyman whose letters with Gonzalez initially quashed the inmate’s desire to donate a kidney, told CNN. “And Texas is denying him that.” Gonzalez’s attorneys had also asked the Texas Board of Corrections to recommend to the governor that their client’s sentence be commuted to life in prison, their statement said. Alternatively, they requested a 180-day deferral to complete a potential kidney donation. But on Monday, the board voted against the request, declining to recommend a change or a 180-day suspension, according to voting results shared by the board.
Gonzalez “very willing” to donate
Gonzalez was convicted in 2006 of manslaughter in Townsend’s murder. Gonzalez, who was 18 at the time, was looking to get drugs one day in January 2001 from Townsend’s friend, who was his drug supplier, according to a 2009 appeals court opinion. When he called, Townsend answered the phone. and told Gonzalez her boyfriend was at work. Gonzalez then went to the home “to steal cocaine,” stole money, bound Townsend’s hands and feet and kidnapped her, records state. Gonzalez then drove Townsend to a location near his family’s ranch, where he sexually assaulted her and fatally shot her. In October 2002, sitting in a county jail awaiting jail time on an unrelated matter, Gonzalez led authorities to her body and eventually confessed to Townsend’s murder, records show. Since Gonzales and Zoosman began corresponding in January 2021, the inmate “has never justified what he had done,” Zoosman, a federal hospital chaplain and founder of L’chaim! Jews against the death penalty, he told CNN. Gonzalez first got the idea to donate a kidney when Zoosman mentioned someone at his church needed a kidney donation, Zoosman told CNN. “I just mentioned it to him out of the blue in a letter that he … and he jumped at it,” Zoosman said, adding that Gonzales was “very willing” and even wrote a letter to the person who needed the kidney. “It was something he wanted to do to atone for the life he had taken,” Zoosman said.
Rare blood type makes Gonzalez an ‘excellent match’
Gonzalez has “actively sought” to be evaluated for organ donation since then, his attorneys, Thea Posel and Raoul Schonemann of the University of Texas at Austin’s Capital Punishment Clinic, said in a statement last week to CNN. The state division of criminal justice this year allowed him to be evaluated, the lawyers said in their letter to the governor, by the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, where Gonzalez was identified as an “excellent candidate” for donation. However, Gonzales’ rare B blood type meant he was no match for Zoosman’s church member. “But that didn’t stop Ramiro,” Zoosman said. “Of his own free will, he sought through his legal team to find another way to do it, to become an altruistic kidney donor.” The medical center told Gonzales’ lawyers that his rare blood type would make him “an excellent match for people who have been on the UTMB waiting list for almost 10 years because of the same rare B blood type,” according to the lawyers’ statement. The medical center — which declined to comment for this story, citing federal medical privacy laws — assured Gonzalez’s team in March that the donation process could be completed within a month, the lawyers said. In recent weeks, Gonzales’ attorneys have repeatedly asked the state Division of Criminal Justice to reconsider its position on altruistic donations, Posel and Schonemann’s statement said. The department has rejected the requests, they noted. It remains to be seen whether the identification of two potential recipients will prompt the state’s criminal justice department to change course or influence the governor’s decision-making. One of the potential recipients hopes that will happen, whether the precious organ goes to her or someone else in need. Frith knew she “had to be prepared for a long wait for a rare kidney” because of her type B blood, she wrote in her letter to Abbott released by Gonzales’ attorneys. She was shocked to learn that Gonzalez had a matching blood type. “Imagine a potential recipient who might have waited 6 years or more for an elusive type B kidney, feeling sicker and more desperate with each passing day,” he said. “You have the ability to save this person’s life by allowing Mr. Gonzalez to donate.”
“He never expected it would lead to his leniency”
Gonzalez has other disputes still pending before the courts: In one case, he asked the state Department of Criminal Justice to let his spiritual adviser — who is not Zoosman — put a hand on his chest, hold hand and to pray audibly at the time of its execution. That request was previously denied, but a federal judge in a preliminary injunction this month ruled that the state could only execute Gonzales on Wednesday if it allowed it, according to court documents. But while these legal proceedings may be attempts to stop or delay Gonzales’ execution, Zoosman firmly believes the inmate’s attempt to become a kidney donor is not. “Never in his correspondence with me did he indicate that he felt that this would be a way out or a way to save his life. He never expected that it would lead to his clemency,” Zoosman said. In fact, according to Zoosman, Gonzales did not want to publicly disclose that he was seeking to donate a kidney. He decided, said the priest, because his request was refused. “There’s been a lot of talk in the press lately about who’s pro-life and who’s not,” Zoosman said, referring to the ongoing battles over abortion rights after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe vs. Wade. . “And of course that’s another matter. “But I can say this: I cannot understand a more pro-death attitude than a state that not only engages in state-sponsored killings of defenseless human beings,” he added, “but also an attitude that prevents those in order for this murder to donate their organs to save the lives of others.” CNN’s Steve Almasy and Raja Razek contributed to this report.
