Trial and Appeals
Ramirez was indicted on June 4 for solicitation of capital murder. Almost a year later on May 7, 1999 he was convicted and in the separate penalty phase, sentenced to death on May 14. For his part in the crime, Bell was sentenced to life imprisonment. For the next six years his appeals to the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, United States district courts, 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, and United States Supreme Court were denied. Ramirez was adamant up to his death of his innocence and said that there was no way he was involved in the crime. He said he was in Brady, Texas on the day of the murder. Hoogstra was also a self-admitted "daily drug abuser".
On 19 October 2005, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles denied a request to commute the sentence to life imprisonment. Further appeals to the United States Supreme Court were also denied. Although new evidence placed Luis Ramirez at a gas station in a different city at the time of the murder the Supreme Court denied him stating (in short) he was convicted for remuneration not for pulling the trigger.
Read more about this topic: Luis L. Ramirez
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