State Executing Cop Killer with Victim's Family Just Feet Away, Then He Addresses Them: 'I Hope...'
A 43-year-old man convicted in the 2007 killing of a Dallas police officer was executed on Wednesday after telling the prison warden, “I’m ready to ride.”
Wesley Ruiz, 43, died by lethal injection at the state prison in Huntsville, Texas, according to Fox News. Ruiz had never denied shooting Dallas police Senior Cpl. Mark Nix, but claimed he was in fear for his life at the time of the incident.
Ruiz issued his final words while he was in the death chamber, according to Newsweek.
“I would like to apologize to Mark and the Nix family for taking him away from you. I hope this brings you closure,” he said without looking at the relatives of Nix who had come to watch Ruiz die.
“I want to say to all my family and friends around the world thank you for supporting me. To my kids, stand tall and continue to make me proud,” he said.
Then came his final words.
Wesley Ruiz is set to receive a lethal injection for the March 2007 killing of Dallas Police Senior Corporal Mark Nix. https://t.co/C7jfhH0zsb
— NBC News (@NBCNews) February 1, 2023
“Don’t worry about me. I’m ready to fly. All right, warden, I’m ready to ride,” he said, according to Fox.
Ruiz inhaled twice quickly after the drugs began to flow and then snored 11 times before the snoring stopped, Fox reported.
In 2007, Ruiz was cornered by police because the car he was driving matched the description of one driven by a murder suspect. Nix was trying to break the passenger window in the vehicle when Ruiz shot him. The bullet sent fragments of Nix’s badge into his neck, severing an artery.
Ruiz said he was acting to prevent Nix from killing him and claimed police fired first.
Lawyers for Ruiz, who is Hispanic, tried to argue racial bias as a reason to halt his execution in a failed last-ditch appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, which on Wednesday declined to hear it, according to CBS.
Actually it was because you killed Dallas Police Senior Corporal Mark Nix,may he rest in peace. pic.twitter.com/CeKLFaKMgA
— Texas Bluebonnet ✝️👶🦅🤠⭐️🇺🇸 (@TexasBluebonne6) February 1, 2023
The defense claimed “overtly racist” and “blatant anti-Hispanic stereotypes” were used by the jury in deciding if Ruiz posed a future threat to society.
The Texas Attorney General’s Office responded that a review of the allegations found no such bias had existed.
Previous efforts to claim bias was a factor in Ruiz’s conviction had failed, prompting the appeal to the Supreme Court.
Ruiz was the second person executed in Texas this year. According to CBS, seven more executions are scheduled.
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