Bufordsecurity 
houston — A man convicted of shooting a Dallas police officer nearly 16 years ago will be executed Wednesday.
Wesley Ruiz, 43, is scheduled to receive a lethal injection for the March 2007 murder of Dallas Police Department Senior Corporal Mark Nix.
Lewis was leading officers on a high-speed chase after he was found driving a vehicle matching the description of the vehicle used by the murder suspect. Authorities said after the chase ended, Nix tried to break the car’s passenger window and Lewis fired a single shot. The bullet hit Nix’s badge, tearing it apart, and its fragments severed an artery in his neck. Nix later died in hospital.
The 33-year-old officer was a US Navy veteran of Operation Desert Storm. He had served nearly seven years in the Dallas Army and was engaged when he was killed.
Lawyers for Lewis have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay an execution scheduled for Wednesday night at the state prison in Huntsville, Texas. They said jurors were “blatantly racist” and “blatantly racist” in assessing whether Lewis was a future danger and a necessary factor in securing a death sentence in Texas. Luis is Hispanic.
Last week, Judge David Godby of the U.S. District Court in Dallas denied Lewis’ request to stay the execution, and his attorney said a juror had made statements during the trial that indicated “clear racial bias.” On Monday, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied a similar stay request on the basis of alleged racial prejudice. We dismissed it for procedural reasons.
Lewis’ attorneys have previously claimed that expert witnesses for the prosecution lied about whether he would be a future threat at his 2008 trial, but to no avail. Attorneys argued that prosecutors knew about the false testimony and kept silent. would not have changed the jury’s decision to sentence Lewis to death.
The Texas State Pardon and Parole Board on Monday unanimously refused to commutate Lewis’ death sentence.
Lewis is one of five Texas death row inmates who are suing to stop the state’s prison system from using what it claims is an expired and unsafe execution drug. Despite preliminary agreement with this allegation, the top two state courts allowed the execution of one inmate who participated in the case on January 10.
Prison officials deny the allegations in the lawsuit, saying the state’s supply of execution drugs is safe.
At his trial, Lewis testified that he feared for his life and opened fire in self-defense after Nix threatened to kill him. said.
“I didn’t try to kill the cop, I just tried to stop him,” Lewis testified.
Lewis said he fled police that day because he had illegal drugs in his car and was using drugs.
Gabriel Luciano, who knew Nicks when the cop worked as a security guard, said he was always quick to respond when people needed help at the convenience store in northwest Dallas where Luciano worked. I got
He was a “guardian angel,” Luciano, 55, said.
Lewis is the second prisoner to be executed in Texas this year and the fourth in the United States.
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Follow Juan A. Lozano on Twitter: twitter.com/juanlozano70
