Texas executed Ramiro Gonzales on Wednesday despite a stunning reversal from a psychiatrist who helped send him to death row 17 years ago.

Gonzales, 41, was killed by lethal injection at 6:50 p.m. Central time as punishment for kidnapping, raping and murdering Bridget Townsend when they were both 18. At the time, Gonzales was struggling with drug addiction. He killed Townsend, his drug dealers girlfriend, while trying to steal drugs. He had turned 18 two months before the killing, making him barely old enough to be legally eligible to be sentenced to death.

In his final words , Gonzales apologized to the Townsend family. Im sorry I cant articulate, I cant put into words the pain I have caused yall, the hurt, what I took away that I cannot give back. I lived the rest of this life for you guys to the best of my ability for restitution, restoration, taking responsibility ... Im sorry.

The Ramiro who the state of Texas killed tonight was not the Ramiro who committed these crimes twenty years ago, Gonzales lawyers, Thea Posel and Raoul Schonemann said in a statement . The Ramiro who left this world was, by all accounts, a deeply spiritual, generous, patient, and intentional person, full of remorse, someone whose driving force was love. He sought to spread and embody love in all aspects of his life, even in the deprivation and physical isolation of death row where he lived for the past 18 years.

Ramiro knew he took something from this world he could never give back, Gonzales lawyers said. He lived with that shame every day, and it shaped the person he worked so hard to become. If this countrys legal system was intended to encourage rehabilitation, he would be an exemplar.

Patricia Townsend, the mother of Bridget Townsend, previously told USA Today that Gonzales execution would be a joyful occasion for her family, noting that it took place on her daughters birthday. Bridget Townsend was a beautiful person who loved life and loved people, she said. Every time she was with somebody she hadnt seen in a while, she had to hug em.

Texas is the only state that requires jurors to determine that the defendant is likely to commit criminal acts of violence that would constitute a continuing threat to society in order to impose a death sentence. During Gonzales 2006 trial, psychiatrist Edward Gripon testified that Gonzales derived pleasure from acts of sexual violence and was unlikely to stop or be rehabilitated.

Fifteen years later, Gripon reevaluated Gonzales and reversed his assessment , citing his prior reliance on a debunked statistic and witness testimony that has since been recanted. It was the first time the psychiatrist had issued a report changing his opinion in a death penalty case, Gripon told The Marshall Project in 2022.