Oct. 4
TEXAS:
Murder Suspect Could Face Death Penalty
The suspect accused in the brutal murder of Summer Baldwin will learn next
week he could face the death penalty.
Rosendo Rodriguez III, 25, was arrested on September 15 in San Antonio.
Lubbock police linked him to the suitcase Summer Baldwin was found in at
the Lubbock landfill.
Police believe Rodriguez killed the pregnant Baldwin at the Holiday Inn
Civic Center, stuffed her body into a suitcase and dumped it into a
dumpster just a few block away.
Initially, Rodriguez was charged with murder, but, KAMC-28 has learned
capital murder charges will be brought before a grand jury next Tuesday.
That means Rodriguez could receive the death penalty.
Rodriguez' attorney, Albert Rodriguez claims he has key evidence that
police didn`t know about.
"Exculpatory evidence I have, which consists of 2 knives belonging to
Summer Baldwin," he says. "We have not turned them over yet because no one
will talk to me."
When asked how he knows the knives belong to Baldwin, Rodriguez says, "I
won`t tell you yet, but they belong to her."
Baldwin was five-weeks pregnant when she was killed. Besides DNA evidence,
Lubbock police used surveillance video from Wal-Mart where the suitcase
was bought and debit card transactions to link Rodriguez to the murder.
Rodriguez says he intends to try and bail his client out as soon as
possible, "unless he goes to grand jury and is indicted for capital
murder, which I seriously doubt.
"The 500,000 dollar bond (that my client is being held on is)excessive."
Lubbock County District Attorney Matt Powell says he will not comment on
the case until it goes to the grand jury on Tuesday. He says Mr. Rodriguez
should be doing the same.
DNA evidence has eliminated Rodriguez as a suspect in 2 other unsolved
murders involving women in Lubbock County.
(source: KAMC News)
ILLINOIS:
Amnesty holds tour against death penalty
In its Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Amnesty International has
organized a panel of former death row prisoners, their family members, and
activists to speak in "Voices from Death Row," a national speaking tour
which will make its 1st stop at University Church (5655 South University
Avenue) this Wednesday, October 5, at 7:30 p.m.
Stephen Bright and Monique Matthews will represent the activist portion of
the tour. Bright is the director of the Southern Center for Human Rights,
an organization that provides legal defense to convicts on death row, and
he teaches courses on the death penalty and criminal law at Yale and
Harvard Law Schools.
Monique Matthews is the sister of Ryan Matthews, an exonerated Louisiana
death row prisoner, wrongly convicted at the age of 17 in a 2-day trial
"riddled with racism." Since her brothers exoneration, Matthews has been
an outspoken advocate for Amnestys Campaign to End the Death Penalty.
Billy Moore will be the only speaker who has spent time on death row.
Moore spent 17 years on Georgia's death row for a murder he admits
committing. In 1991, Moore's sentence was commuted to life imprisonment
when his victims family spoke out against his execution. This made him the
only death row prisoner in history to be freed after admitting guilt.
Speaker Gloria Johnson is the mother of Illinois prisoner Montell Johnson,
who suffers from chronic multiple sclerosis and is paralyzed from the
waist down. George Ryan, the former governor of Illinois, recently
commuted Johnsons sentence to 40 years. Gloria Johnson is still advocating
for her son to be transferred to a facility where his illness can be
treated properly.
(source: University of Chicago Maroon)
