Life and Death Row

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BBC Three

Documentaries

Factual: Crime & Justice

Capital punishment through the eyes of young people whose lives have been shaped by it.

The story of capital punishment through the eyes of young people whose lives have been shaped by it.

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Aysha Rafaele

Nick Poyntz

Life and Death Row: In Cold Blood

In Cold Blood

BBC Three - Life and Death Row, In Cold Blood

Former US Marine John Ramirez has seven days left on death row to fight his execution.

A former US Marine, seven days from execution, meets the son he fathered on the run, giving him a will to live. His murder victim’s boys recall the impact of having their dad brutally killed.

On February 2 2017, John Henry Ramirez (32) is scheduled for execution by lethal injection in Huntsville, Texas.

Convicted of committing capital murder in 2004, he was sentenced to death in 2008 for a robbery that netted him and his two female accomplices, lovers Angela Rodriguez and Christina Chavez, a grand total of $1.25.

His victim Pablo Castro, a Mexican immigrant convenience store worker with young children, was left for dead from fatal stab wounds as the former US Marine went on the run to Mexico, becoming one of America’s most wanted.

Protected by a Mexican cartel for four years, Ramirez was eventually caught in an FBI sting on the US border four years later.

His capture ended years of torment for Pablo Castro’s traumatised children. Pablo’s youngest boy, Fernando, was 11 when he was brutally murdered. Taken to the scene of the crime, Fernando recounts how seeing his father's body, soaked in blood, had a lasting impact on his life and how he’s taken a painstaking path to overcome his phobia of blood to become a paramedic and save people like his father, who are the victims of violent crime. 

His older brother Aaron, a mixed martial arts fighter, tells of his hurt, rape and attempted suicide after losing his estranged father and his subsequent hate for his dad’s killer. Both want retribution and execution for their father’s killer now that an execution date has finally been set.

When John Henry Ramirez’ trial commenced in December 2008, his accomplices Christina Chavez and Angela Rodriguez had already been sentenced to 25 years and life respectively for their parts in the robbery and murder. All three were high on a cocktail of anti-depressant drugs, including Xanax, vodka and marijuana. The evidence against Ramirez was considered overwhelming: witness testimony and DNA from blood that matched both him, and his victim, Castro. The guilty phase of the trial was over quickly; Ramirez was found guilty. 

It was the punishment phase of the trial where there was controversy: Ramirez instructed his lawyers not to put on a mitigation defense against the death penalty. They obeyed their clients’ orders and did not mount a mitigation case for him. Ramirez claimed that he partly did not want one because he did not want his childhood and family background dissected in court. 

Instead, he instructed them to recite from the bible: 'For I know my transgressions and my sin is always before me. Amen' (Psalm 51, verse 3).

The jury came back with a unanimous sentence of death.

Eight years later on death row, John Henry Ramirez, knowing the date of his death, reaches out to Izzy, the 11-year-old son he fathered with girlfriend Becky while he was a fugitive in Mexico. His son, whom he hadn’t seen since the day of his capture 8 years ago, is now the same age as Fernando Castro was when Ramirez stabbed his father Pablo to death. The hope of buying more time to bond with his son gives the condemned man the will to fight for his life on death row.

But he only has seven days left on earth. Barring a miracle, he will die.

Until now, John Henry Ramirez and Pablo Castro’s sons have never told their sides of this death row story, not even to the police.

This Life and Death Row, In Cold Blood, is not only about a brutal murder and Texas law. It’s about family, childhood and surviving the death of a father. 

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