Texas Executes Ker’Sean Ramey After Final Appeal Rejected

Texas executed Ker’Sean Olajuwa Ramey by lethal injection in Huntsville on Wednesday, Sept. 23, after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his final appeal. The Texas Department of Criminal Justice reported that Ramey, 41, was pronounced dead at 6:34 p.m. The execution was the sixth in Texas this year. Ramey’s lawyers had argued that jurors did not hear mitigating evidence about his childhood, including physical abuse and poverty. Prosecutors urged the court to reject the appeal. The Supreme Court denied the final request on the day of the execution, according to reports of the proceedings. In a final statement, Ramey praised God and thanked fellow death-row inmates for their support. His remarks were reported by witnesses to the execution. Ramey had been on death row since his 2007 conviction for the 2005 killings of Samuel Roberts, Tiffani Peacock and Celso Lopez in Edna, a rural Texas town. Court records describe Ramey and codefendant LeJames Norman as entering the home intending to steal cocaine. Lopez was inside, and Roberts and Peacock arrived later. All three were shot and killed. Norman was executed on Sept. 16, one week before Ramey.