A 43-year-old man who fatally shot a Dallas police officer nearly 16 years ago is set to be executed in Texas today amid an ongoing legal battle over the state’s use of expired legal injection drugs.
Wesley Ruiz has been on death row since 2008, after gunning down Dallas Police Senior Corporal Mark Nix, a US Navy veteran of Operation Desert Storm, the previous year.
Ruiz had led Nix on a high-speed car chase through the streets of Dallas, before sliding off the road and shooting the officer in the chest
The 33-year-old police officer had served on the Dallas force for nearly seven years and was engaged to be married when he was killed.
Ruiz’s execution will be carried out despite controversy surrounding the state’s use of lethal injection drugs long past their original expiration dates.
Ruiz’s attorneys have also unsuccessfully attempted to halt proceedings after arguing jurors relied on ‘racist’ stereotypes when deciding the killer’s fate.
Wesley Ruiz, 43, was sentenced to death after he shot and killed Dallas Police Senior Corporal Mark Nix in 2007
Mark Nix, a US Navy veteran of Operation Desert Storm, had served on the Dallas force for nearly seven years and was engaged to be married when he was killed
Ruiz was sent to death row for the 2007 killing of Nix, which erupted as police were searching for a murder suspect.
After spotting Ruiz driving a red Chevrolet that matched the description of one seen fleeing a recent slaying, police attempted to pull him over but he sped away at over 80mph.
The chase came to an end when Ruiz’s car eventually slid off the road and Nix rushed over to try and smash the passenger window with his police baton.
Ruiz then fired a single shot at Nix, hitting his police badge which then splintered and sent fragments flying into an artery in his neck.
Nix died later in hospital, and Ruiz was sentenced to death in July the following year.
Ruiz is set to be executed at Texas’ Huntsville penitentiary this evening amid a controversial legal battle over the state’s use of expired lethal injection drugs
Wednesday’s execution comes amid a controversial legal battle that alleges the use of expired and unsafe execution drugs on death row inmates violates the US Constitution’s prohibition of cruel and unusual punishment.
Ruiz is one of five inmates facing lethal injection who are suing the Texas prison system for using the expired execution drugs.
The lawsuit stems from an issue with a lack of pharmacies willing to produce execution drugs, which has led the Texas Department of Criminal Justice to extend the use-by dates.
The authority prolongs the use of the drug pentobarbital, the only medication used in Texas executions, after retesting its potency levels, and previous lawsuits attempting to halt the practice have failed in court.
Prison officials deny the lawsuits’ claims that the expired drugs make their execution more painful, and say the state’s supply of drugs is safe.
Despite a civil court judge in Austin preliminarily agreeing with the claims, the state’s top two courts have still allowed the execution of another inmate who joined Ruiz in the litigation on January 10.
Ruiz has been on death row for nearly 16 years after he gunned down Mark Nix in 2007
In another attempt to delay his execution, Ruiz’s attorneys have also argued that juror bias led to an unjust sentence in his murder trial.
They petitioned to the US Supreme Court that jurors relied upon ‘overtly racist’ and ‘blatant anti-Hispanic stereotypes’ when deciding whether Ruiz would be a future danger, an element needed to secure a death sentence in Texas.
In court documents filed late Tuesday with the Supreme Court, the Texas Attorney General’s Office said Ruiz´s claim of juror bias has no merit because a review conducted a week ago rejected the allegations.
One of the jurors accused of bias by Ruiz’s attorneys told the review: ‘I was not nor am not bias(ed) to anyone or any race,’ according to the court filing.
At his trial, Ruiz claimed he shot and killed Nix because he was afraid for his life, and said he only fired in self-defense when the officer allegedly threatened to kill him.
‘I didn’t try to kill the officer. I just tried to stop him,’ Ruiz testified.
The killer also said he only decided to lead officers on the fatal high-speed chase because he had taken illegal drugs and had them in his car.
Gabriel Luchiano, who knew Nix when the officer worked as a security guard, said he always responded quickly when people needed help at the convenience store in northwest Dallas where Luchiano worked.
He was a ‘guardian angel,’ said Luchiano, 55. ‘It’s still painful no matter what. Nothing is going to close it.’
Ruiz would be the second inmate put to death this year in Texas and the fourth in the US. Seven other executions are scheduled in Texas for later this year, including one next week.
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk