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#Post#: 563--------------------------------------------------
~ Wesley Ruiz, 01Feb23, (TX) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: January 12, 2023, 5:29 pm
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Dallas officer dies in shootout following car chase--
Sunday, March 25th, 2007
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A wounded murder suspect is wheeled away after a SWAT team
removed him from his vehicle after a shooting and stand off in
west Dallas, Friday.
DALLAS, Tex. - The man accused of gunning down a Dallas police
officer remained hospitalized Saturday with injuries that are
not considered to be life threatening, a police spokesman said.
Wesley Ruiz, 27, faces a capital murder charge, four charges of
aggravated assault on a public servant and possession of
methamphetamines, Lt. Vernon Hale said.
Police who searched his car found an assault rifle in the
vehicle, 200 grams of meth and an unknown amount of marijuana,
Hale said. It was not known if Ruiz had any drugs in his system.
He is accused of killing Senior Cpl. Mark Timothy Nix following
a brief car chase Friday in which the suspect's car ended up
nose to nose with the squad car. Nix, 33, was a Navy reservist
and a veteran of the Iraqi War. He had been on the force for
nearly seven years and was engaged to be married.
Ruiz opened fire from inside his car, shooting Nix when he was
at the passenger-side window, Hale said. Other officers shot
back, injuring Ruiz. Hospital personnel declined to release his
condition, referring questions to police.
The chase began Friday when officers spotted a car that matched
the description of one used in a homicide earlier in the week.
When police tried to pull over Ruiz, he sped off. Ruiz has a
criminal history involving drug charges and evading arrest, Hale
said.
The chase ended in a West Dallas neighborhood when the suspect
lost control of his car. The police car and the suspect's car
ended up front bumper to front bumper. That's when Nix left his
squad car and approached Ruiz.
Rush-hour traffic prevented ambulances from promptly responding,
so another officer drove Nix to Parkland Memorial Hospital,
where he died.
>:(
#Post#: 568--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Wesley Ruiz, 01Feb23, (TX) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: January 31, 2023, 10:43 pm
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Texas Gives Wesley Ruiz, 43, Execution Date of February 1,
2023--
Tuesday, January 31st, 2023
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The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals refused a request to halt
the execution of Wesley Ruiz. Ruiz has now requested that the
Supreme Court of the United States halt his execution, arguing
that jurors were unfairly prejudiced against him.
Wesley Lynn Ruiz is scheduled to be executed at 6 pm local time
on Wednesday, February 1, 2023, at the Walls Unit of the
Huntsville State Penitentiary in Huntsville, Texas.
Forty-three-year-old Wesley is convicted of murdering DPD Police
Officer Mark Nix on March 23, 2007, in Dallas, Texas. Wesley has
spent the last 14 years on Texas’ death row.
Wesley was born and raised in Texas. He completed the 11th grade
but did not graduate high school. Prior to his arrest, he worked
as a truck driver. He did not have any previous prison record,
however, court records indicated he was part of a criminal gang.
On March 21, 2007, the homicide division of the Dallas Police
Department instructed all officers to be on the lookout for a
1996 4-door Chevy Caprice. The order included a description of
the vehicle, red and gray in color with chrome wheels and tinted
windows. The owner of the vehicle was suspected of a capital
murder, possibly gang-related.
On March 23, 2007, a vehicle matching the description of the
order was seen by two plainclothes police officers. The officers
followed the vehicle while requesting marked patrol cars to pull
over the vehicle. Corporal Mark Nix arrived in a marked patrol
car, positioned himself behind the suspected vehicle, and
activated his over headlights.
The suspected vehicle briefly braked before speaking off down a
winding road. Cpl. Nix and at least one other patrol car
followed. The suspected vehicle took a curve too fast, hit a
curb, and spun out of control. The two police cars blocked the
suspected vehicle from being able to leave.
Nix approached the vehicle and began trying to break the
passenger side window with his baton. After punching a small
hole in the window, a shot came from the rear passenger window.
The bullet struck Nix’s badge and splintered. A fragment entered
his clavicle and severed his carotid artery.
Other officers returned fire and dragged Nix to cover. They also
called a SWAT team and an ambulance. Nix was taken to the
hospital where he was pronounced dead. A man driving the
suspected car, later identified as Wesley Ruiz, was eventually
taken from the vehicle. He had received multiple gunshot wounds.
Ruiz was taken to the hospital for treatment and survived his
injuries.
During his trial, Ruiz testified that he believed the police
were firing upon him and that he shot back in self-defense. The
jury did not believe his defense and sentenced him to death.
8)
#Post#: 569--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Wesley Ruiz, 01Feb23, (TX) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: February 1, 2023, 8:06 pm
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Justices decline last-minute death penalty reprieve in Texas--
A convicted cop killer had sought to stay his Wednesday night
execution on the basis of jury bias.
Wednesday, February 1st, 2023
WASHINGTON (CN) — The Supreme Court refused Wednesday to
intervene in the planned execution Wednesday night of a Texas
man who killed a police officer in 2007.
Wesley Ruiz killed Dallas police officer Mark Nix after
attempting to flee a traffic stop. Nix hit Ruiz’s car window
with a police baton when he and other officers finally cornered
Ruiz, and Ruiz shot him.
Set to be put to death after 7 p.m. Wednesday, Ruiz applied to
the U.S. Supreme Court for stay of execution, and he also
petitioned for a writ of certiorari. The court declined both
filings at around 5 p.m. without comment.
Prosecutors at Ruiz's trial had cast the defendant as a danger
to society, telling jurors that death row would be the only hope
of thwarting that threat. The jury sentenced him to death.
In 2013, Ruiz brought a habeas claim regarding the state’s
evidence regarding his future dangerousness. Ruiz argued the
state presented false testimony from an expert that he would
have opportunities to commit violent crimes while in prison. His
petition was dismissed.
After the state obtained a warrant for Ruiz’s execution in July,
the jury foreman signed an affidavit expressing racist views
directed at Ruiz. The foreman claimed Ruiz was “like an animal”
and said Hispanic people that attended his trial were gang
members. The foreman also admitted to being scared of Hispanics
who were at the trial and claimed to have persuaded another
member of the jury to give Ruiz the death penalty because he
could be dangerous.
Another juror signed an affidavit stating that she held racist
stereotypes that made her vulnerable to the state’s expert
witness on Ruiz’s future dangerousness. She said she thought
Ruiz would be able to escape if sentenced to life in prison and
that, had she known differently, it would have changed her mind.
In January, Ruiz filed another habeas petition arguing the
statements proved the juror unconstitutionally relied on
anti-Hispanic racial stereotypes to sentence him to death. His
appeal was dismissed.
The inmate was represented in his high court petition by Peter
Walker with the Federal Community Defender Office for the
Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“Because the jurors viewed Mr. Ruiz as a ‘subhuman’ and
expressed hostility to the very presence of Hispanics in their
community, Mr. Ruiz was deprived of the basic Sixth Amendment
guarantee that the body making the solemn life-or-death decision
be impartial,” Walker wrote. “Because the jurors ‘relied on
racial stereotypes or animus’ and on a ‘particularly noxious
strain of racial prejudice’ in determining whether Mr. Ruiz was
a future danger, his death sentence is tainted.”
Ruiz asked the court if its 2017 ruling in Pena-Rodriguez v.
Colorado should apply to capital sentencing proceedings. In
Pena-Rodriguez the court held traditional rules regarding the
impeachment of jury verdicts do not apply when a juror relies on
racial stereotypes or animus when reaching their verdict.
Texas told the court that Ruiz does not present any “special or
important reason” for the court’s review, and that he failed to
demonstrate a violation of any federal constitutional right. To
support its case against Ruiz, the state cited evidence of
Ruiz’s involvement with a street gang and his prior offenses.
The state said Ruiz’s petition presented a question that wasn’t
worth the court’s attention. Texas argues the juror statements
could have been included in prior appeals and there is no legal
justification for including considering new evidence.
“Ruiz has not furnished a single reason to grant a writ of
certiorari, let alone a compelling one,” Tomee Heining, deputy
chief of criminal appeals for the state of Texas, wrote in the
state’s brief. “Instead, Ruiz attempts to undermine his
conviction with ‘new’ evidence — namely, unreliable juror
declarations that could have been obtained for inclusion in any
of his three prior habeas applications. But Ruiz cannot
demonstrate the factual or legal unavailability of the either
his claim or this ‘new’ evidence, as required by Article 11.071
§ 5(a)(1), upon which he relies.”
8)
#Post#: 570--------------------------------------------------
Re: ~ Wesley Ruiz, 01Feb23, (TX) ~
DIR By: BuzzC
Date: February 1, 2023, 8:27 pm
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Texas executes death row inmate after Supreme Court declines to
intervene--
Wednesday, February 1st, 2023
Texas executed a man on death row on Wednesday evening after the
Supreme Court denied his appeal, which claimed anti-Hispanic
bias among jurors who sentenced him to death by lethal
injection, per AP.
Wesley Ruiz was convicted of shooting and killing a Dallas
police officer in 2007. His execution came amid a larger battle
over Texas' use of expired drugs to kill prisoners, the Texas
Tribune notes.
Ruiz, 43, had asked the Supreme Court to pause his lethal
injection, arguing that two of the jurors in his case relied on
"overtly racist" and "blatant anti-Hispanic stereotypes" to
assess his potential to cause future harm and sentence him to
death.
"Because the jurors viewed Mr. Ruiz as a 'subhuman' and
expressed hostility to the very presence of Hispanics in their
community," Ruiz was deprived of an impartial jury as guaranteed
by the Sixth Amendment, his attorneys wrote in his appeal to the
court.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) countered that Ruiz
"points to no compelling factual or legal issues warranting
further review" and that his allegations of racial bias had no
merit.
Paxton argued that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals’ decision
to dismiss the case on procedural grounds — without considering
the merits of Ruiz's application — is shielded from federal
review because it was made on state grounds independent from
federal law. The Supreme Court has no jurisdiction, he claimed.
The court rejected Ruiz's application in an unsigned order on
Wednesday.
8)
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