Who Is Roberto Moreno Ramos? Mexican Man Who Killed Wife, 2 Kids With Sledgehammer Set for Texas Execution

Attorneys in Texas are scrambling to save a Mexican man who is facing execution for the murder of his wife and two children using a sledgehammer.

Roberto Moreno Ramos, 64, killed his 42-year-old wife Leticia, 7-year-old daughter Abigail and 3-year-old son Jonathan at their home in Progresso, close to the Mexican border, with a sledgehammer in 1992.

Lawyers representing Ramos, however, are appealing for clemency on the basis that the death row inmate is a "bipolar, brain-injured" person who was severely abused as a child, The Associated Press reported.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals have both rejected Ramos's appeals for a commutation of the sentence or a six-month reprieve. The courts claim to have been presented with insufficient evidence relating to his supposed mental illness and childhood abuse.

Danalynn Recer, Ramos's appellate attorney, told the court his client has suffered from bipolar disorder for much of his life, including when he killed his family. This, Recer claimed, had affected Ramos' ability to regulate his emotions and control impulses.

Court documents also suggested Ramos was beaten by his father as a child. He was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, and spent time in Guadalajara and Tijuana before his family moved to the U.S. in 1970.

"No fact-finder or decision-maker entrusted with Mr. Moreno Ramos's life has ever been provided with evidence of [his] 'diverse human frailties' to assist them in dispensing the most severe punishment under law," Recer told the court.

Ramos was convicted of beating his family to death and burying them under his home's bathroom floor. Authorities believe he did so in order to marry a woman he was having an affair with at the time.

The Texas Attorney General's Office stood by the original ruling, arguing Ramos's death sentence was suitable due to his "violent and dangerous nature." The office also pointed to testimony give by Ramos's then-19-year-old son at the 1993 trial, in which he warned his father "would continue to commit criminal acts of violence."

In 2004, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague, Netherlands, listed Ramos as one of 52 Mexicans on death row in the U.S. who were not told they were eligible for Mexican government help when first arrested, as is required under the Vienna Convention.

Though President George W. Bush directed the relevant states to try all the prisoners again to see whether this assistance would have affected their cases, the Supreme Court blocked the decision, ruling that only Congress can order states to follow the rulings of the ICJ.

Five Mexican citizens have been executed since being named in the 2004 ICJ ruling, all in Texas. On Monday, Jacob Prado Gonzalez—the director-general for the protection of Mexicans abroad—also appealed for clemency for Ramos at a press conference in Mexico City.

If killed, Ramos will be the 21st person executed in the U.S. this year. He will be the eleventh to be killed in Texas, which uses capital punishment more than any other state. This year so far, Texas has killed 10 prisoners—as many as all other states combined, according to non-profit organization Deathpenaltyinfo.org.