Sept. 23, 2026, 8:10 p.m. ET
Texas has executed the second of two males who carried out a cruel triple homicide greater than 20 years in the past in a small Texas metropolis on the Gulf Coast.
The state executed Ker’Sean Ramey, 41, by deadly injection on Wednesday, Sept. 23, making him the sixth inmate put to demise within the state this 12 months and the twenty eighth within the U.S. He was pronounced useless at 6:34 p.m. CT.
A jury convicted Ramey of capital homicide within the 2005 taking pictures deaths of three of his neighbors, together with an 18-year-old lady simply getting began in life. Ramey’s execution comes per week after Texas executed the opposite man convicted of the triple homicide, LeJames Norman.
Ramey’s attorneys have argued for years that executing him is unjust and that he by no means bought a good trial due to racial bias. Prosecutors have been in a position to remove any Black individuals from being on the jury, which discovered Ramey responsible after an hour of deliberations and took simply quarter-hour to debate whether or not he must be sentenced to demise, in response to courtroom information.
The Texas Court docket of Prison Appeals rejected these arguments this week, discovering that Ramey failed to indicate that he deserved a reprieve.
In the meantime the sister of the 18-year-old homicide sufferer within the case advised USA TODAY that simply needs her beloved one to be remembered for extra than simply the best way she died.
“She was a daughter, a sister, a buddy, and somebody deeply beloved,” Tabatha Hastings mentioned. “Her life mattered earlier than it ever turned a part of a courtroom case, and it nonetheless issues at the moment.”
This is what else it’s worthwhile to know in regards to the case and who Peacock was.
What occurred tragic night time of triple homicide?
On Aug. 24, 2005, Ker’Sean Ramey and LeJames Norman have been trying to rating some cocaine and determined to rob their neighbor, 38-year-old Celso Lopez. Ramey and Norman pressured their manner into Lopez’s residence and held him at gunpoint as they seemed for medicine they by no means discovered, in response to courtroom information. In some unspecified time in the future Norman shot Lopez, although he claimed it was an accident.
Lopez’s roommates, 18-year-old Tiffani Peacock and 24-year-old Sam Roberts, walked in on the scene. The 2 had been courting.
“Norman pressured Peacock to her knees and shot her within the head,” courtroom information say. Roberts tried to flee however each Norman and Ramey shot him. Ramey shot all three victims a number of extra occasions to verify they have been useless, courtroom information say.
“It was an execution,” prosecutor Eli Garza mentioned throughout Ramey’s 2007 trial, in response to an archived story within the Victoria Advocate.
Each Norman and Ramey have been convicted of the murders and sentenced to demise. Texas executed Norman by deadly injection on Sept. 16, one week earlier than Ramey’s execution.
Attorneys element alleged jury bias in case
Ramey’s attorneys have been focusing their arguments for a reprieve on the truth that his jury consisted of 11 White individuals and one Latino, despite the fact that there have been many potential Black jurors. The state’s wrangling is chargeable for the elimination of a minimum of 9 Black jurors in the course of the month-long course of forward of the 2006 trial, in response to courtroom information.
At one level, prosecutors requested one potential Black juror named Cheryl Steadham-Scott about whether or not she thought varied well-known Black individuals have been responsible or harmless of crimes for which that they had been charged, courtroom information say.
An appellate courtroom rejected arguments that the jury choice course of was biased, crediting the state’s motive for eliminating Steadham-Scott. Prosecutors mentioned they struck her from the jury “due to her inconclusive opinions on the demise penalty and never her identification as an African–American,” courtroom information say.
Ramey’s conviction was based mostly largely on testimony, together with from Norman, since no DNA proof linked him to the crime scene and a firearm examiner was unable to find out whether or not bullets recovered from the victims matched the suspected homicide weapons, courtroom information say.
Who was Tiffani Peacock?
At simply 18 years previous, Peacock was on the cusp of beginning school and dreamed of attempting out for “American Idol,” Hastings advised USA TODAY.
“Her complete life was nonetheless forward of her,” Hastings mentioned. “We all the time believed she would have achieved extremely nicely if she had gotten that likelihood.”
The sisters beloved going to bop halls, listening to their favourite songs and singing karaoke collectively. Hastings nonetheless remembers so many little issues that Peacock would do to indicate her love.
“She would iron my garments, assist me repair my hair,” Hastings mentioned. “These small recollections imply a lot now as a result of they present how caring she was and the type of sister she was to me.”
Peacock additionally cared deeply about animals and was so good with them, that her household referred to as her “an animal whisperer,” Hastings mentioned.
When her sister was killed, Hastings mentioned that Peacock had simply graduated from highschool and was planning to attend a close-by neighborhood school within the fall, after which work her manner towards Texas A&M to turn into a veterinarian.
The executions of her sister’s killers have dredged up previous wounds and recollections. She mentioned that she believes in “accountability and justice” for Peacock’s homicide however that she does not view an execution as “one thing to have fun.”
Hastings selected to not be among the many witnesses to both execution and as a substitute has centered on honoring her sister’s life.
“What I hope individuals keep in mind isn’t merely how Tiffani died, however how she lived and who she was,” Hastings mentioned. “We imagine her life had objective, that she was deeply beloved by God, and that in the future we are going to see her once more.”
USA TODAY was unable to succeed in relations of the opposite two victims.
When is the subsequent execution?
The following execution within the U.S. is that of Christa Pike in Tennessee for the extended and brutal homicide of her romantic rival, 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, in 1995. She’s set to be executed by deadly injection on Sept. 30.
Solely 18 girls have been executed within the U.S. within the final 50 years, and Pike could be the primary lady put to demise in Tennessee in additional than 200 years.
Her attorneys have been aggressively attempting to win her a reprieve, arguing partly that at simply 18 on the time of the crime, Pike was too younger to advantage the demise penalty, and that as a result of she is a survivor of a number of rapes all through her childhood, the method of being strapped down and injected with a deadly drug quantities to unconstitutional torture.
The state maintains that the demise sentence is simply and that Pike have to be held to account for her crime, which made nationwide headlines for its brutality.
Pike is the one lady on Tennessee’s demise row, and simply considered one of 45 nationwide.
Amanda Lee Myers is a senior crime and courts reporter who covers the demise penalty, chilly instances and breaking information for USA TODAY. Observe her on X at @amandaleeusat
