I am Ready, Warden (2024)

[bunniefuu]

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 m*rder*d 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.

FBI and law enforcement

across the country

on the lookout for this man.

A massive manhunt

with a coast guard

chopper is underway.

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.

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.

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

m*rder*d my father.

He should pay for what he did.

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?"

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 m*rder*r.

Cause, like, no

matter what I do,

What does it mean?

I'll never overcome it.

I didn't know a lot

about the death penalty.

Texas leads the k*ll 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 k*lled someone,

you can k*ll me."

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 a*usive,

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.

In the type of environment

I grew up with,

violence is glorified.

My uncle, he was

in the g*ng 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.

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 k*ll 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 k*ller was.

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...

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 m*rder*d 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.

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 k*ll 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.

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.

The proof is in the motion

Gonzalez filed today.

He's trying to get Ramirez's

execution date withdrawn.

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.

Withdrawing or keeping

the execution date

is in the hands of the

judge from Ramirez's trial.

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.

You have taken a life.

Yours is now on the line.

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 ex*cuted.

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.

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 k*lled somebody.

I don't know that execution

is the right thing to do.

And I don't know if execution

makes anything better.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Hello?

- Israel?

- Yes.

This is Denise at

the Huntsville unit.

Would you like to

speak to John Ramirez?

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...

Four...

4:01.

Yeah.

I love you, thank

you for everything.

Bye.

I love you, too.

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.

You tell us about growing up.

I mean, tell us about

your family and all.

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.

Opening it up for you...

So that... would make

myself be put on death row?

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.

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...

At this point, let's

go ahead and go back

to Huntsville with Linda...

Okay, what are we doing here?

Tell us what's happened.

The family just came across

and I guess they're

getting in their car

to go to the chapel now.

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.

John Henry Ramirez is dead.

Do you know how

weird that sounds?

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.

Folks, we leave this place,

and those of us with

faith leave with hope,

Oh...

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.

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.

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?

Yeah, of course.

Oh, God.

Okay, I'm sorry.

I accept this apology.

I accept it.