David Ruiz
Age: 63
Summary: convict-turned-advocate
whose handwritten lawsuit more than 30 years earlier led to
court-ordered Texas prison improvements who was serving a life prison
term for aggravated robbery when he filed a lawsuit in 1972 allegeding
that Texas prisons were overcrowded and understaffed with poor medical
care and rampant violence that denied inmates their civil rights,
ultimately leading to the passage of legislation to construct more
prisons and improve conditions.
Cause of Death: Natural causes
Born: May 15, 1942
Died: November 12, 2005
Location: Galveston, Texas
