[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
March 7 TEXASexecution SA hit man Rolando Ruiz executed after Supreme Court denies appeals The U.S. Supreme Court denied the appeals from attorneys trying to keep a paid hit man from execution in Texas for gunning down a San Antonio woman in a life insurance scheme nearly a quarter-century ago. Rolando Ruiz was convicted of accepting $2,000 to fatally shoot Theresa Rodriguez, 29, outside her home in 1992 as she was getting out of a car with her husband and brother-in-law, who both orchestrated her murder. The ruling came down just after 10 p.m. and he was pronounced dead at 11:06 p.m. The execution was delayed nearly 5 hours before the U.S. Supreme Court rejected last-day appeals from Ruiz's attorneys. Ruiz approached a car pulling up to Rodriguez's home the night of July 14, 1992, under the guise of seeking directions. Her husband of nearly seven years, Michael, was in the car along with Michael's brother, Mark. Ruiz, who already had pocketed $1,000 and had failed in two earlier killing attempts, asked Mark Rodriguez if he wanted him to "do it," and Rodriguez gave him the go-ahead. As Theresa Rodriguez was getting out of the car, Ruiz put a .357 Magnum revolver to her head and fired. 3 days later, Ruiz collected another $1,000 for the completed job. Evidence showed Michael Rodriguez stood to collect at least a quarter-million dollars in insurance benefits from his wife's death and that he'd recently applied for another $150,000 in life insurance for her. Ruiz had met Mark Rodriguez at the home of a mutual friend, was arrested nine days after the shooting and implicated the brothers. The police investigation was aided by a telephone tip after Theresa Rodriguez's employer, the San Antonio-based financial services giant USAA, offered a $50,000 reward for information about her slaying. Ruiz becomes the 3rd condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 541st overall since the state resumed capital punishment on december 7, 1982. Ruiz becomes the 23rd condemned inmate to be put to death in Texas since greg Abbott became governor. Ruiz becomes the 5th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1447th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. (sources: KSAT news & Rick Halperin *** Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present23 Executions in Texas: Dec. 7, 1982present-541 Abbott#scheduled execution date-nameTx. # 24-March 14-James Bigby---542 25-April 12-Paul Storey---543 26-May 16---Tilon Carter--544 27-May 24---Juan Castillo--545 28-June 28--Steven Long---546 29-July 19-Kosoul Chanthakoummane---547 (sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin) ___ A service courtesy of Washburn University School of Law www.washburnlaw.edu DeathPenalty mailing list DeathPenalty@lists.washlaw.edu http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/listinfo/deathpenalty Unsubscribe: http://lists.washlaw.edu/mailman/options/deathpenalty
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----worldwide
March 7 IRANexecutions 18 Executions Including 2 Women and 1 in Public and Mass Arrests The Iranian regime hanged 18 prisoners over the past 3 days in various cities. On March 6, 2 young prisoners in the prison of Sari, 2 other prisoners, including a 70 year old man in Orumiyeh Central Prison and 2 others in the prison of Garmsar were hanged. The day before, a prisoner was hanged in public in Buin Zahra (Qazvin province) and 3 in Ghezel Hessar Prison in Karaj. On March 4, 8 prisoners were hanged in Rasht, Orumiyeh, Shahroud and Hamedan prisons. 2 of the 4 prisoners executed in Rasht were women. At the same time arbitrary arrests under false pretexts have broadened across the country. An all-women's party was raided and its organizers arrested, 34 young men and women were arrested in Ahwaz, 14 people were arrested in Sepidan (Fars Province), and 13 people were arrested in Bandar Anzali (northern Iran) were among the arrests made in recent days . The goal of the wave of executions and arbitrary arrests is to intensify the atmosphere of fear and to prevent the spread of social protests, whose increasing trend has frightened the mullahs' regime. (source: Secretariat of the National Council of Resistance of Iran) KENYA: Mechanic sentenced to death for robbing woman 3 phones worth Sh21,000 A 22-year-old mechanic was on Monday sentenced to death by a Kibera court for robbing a woman at her house in Kaberia, Riruta. Sospeter Simiyu was found guilty of the offence committed on November 14, 2014, and will therefore be hanged. Together with another man who was not in court, he robbed Zipporah Wangui of her 3 mobiles valued at Sh21,000. Principal magistrate Barbara Ojoo said the prosecution had proven beyond doubt that Simiyu robbed the victim. Police said he cut the victim on her left hand using a machete, causing her to sustain serious injuries. Ojoo said that Wangui narrated to the court how the accused had entered the house at 3 am and robbed her. She told the court that she was sleeping at the time Simiyu and his accomplice stormed her house. "They took the 3 phones and cut my left hand," Wangui earlier told the court. In mitigation, Simiyu asked the court to be lenient to him, adding that he was remorseful. Ojoo, in her ruling, said the seriousness of the offence warrants a death sentence by hanging. Robbery with violence is punishable by death in the Kenyan penal code. The law states that a person is guilty of robbery if he or she uses or threatens to use violence while stealing. However, there is a debate on the relevance of death penalty since the last person was executed in 1987. (source: the-star.co.ke) NIGERIA: Bauchi approves death sentence for kidnapping Kidnapping in Bauchi State is now punishable by death or life imprisonment as Gov. Mohammed Abdullahi signed into law a bill in that direction. The state Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Mr Ibrahim Umar, made this known on Tuesday while briefing newsmen in Bauchi. He said that Abdullahi also assented to bills on fisheries and accidents. Umar said that the governor assented to the bills on Monday. "Whoever is guilty of the offence of kidnapping shall be punished with life imprisonment. "If the victim dies as a result of the kidnapping, the offender shall be punished with death." According to Umar, whoever seizes, confines, tricks, abducts or carries away anybody and holds to ransom or otherwise with or without a weapon, commits the offence of kidnapping. Umar said that the state government also signed into law a bill for provision of free emergency treatment to accident victims within 24 hours of occurrence. He said that the government would provide for each public hospitals, an accident and emergency unit, intensive care unit and a blood bank equipped with personnel and effective communication gadgets. "The law stated that the state government shall provide funds and logistics for joint patrol of the hospital management board and Federal Road Safety Corps for rescuing accident victims in the 3 senatorial districts of the state. "Any government hospital that fails to accept an accident victim shall have its officers on duty that day punished according to civil service rules, including a reduction in rank," he said. He said that the law applied to all accidents including domestic fire, industrial fire, plane crash, flood disaster, snake bite, dog bite, rainstorm, bomb blasts and gunshot. The attorney-general also said that the governor assented to the state Fisheries and other Related Matters Bill. According to him, the law is to regulate fisheries in order to promote a healthy lifestyle and ensure that fishes would be free from contamination. Lagos State has also approved death sentence for kidnapping. Gov. Akinwunmi Ambode on Feb. 1, assented to the state's Kidnaping Prohibition Bill, 2016, which provides
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., S.C., GA., ALA., OHIO, IND., CALIF.
March 7 TEXASimpending execution Hit man in San Antonio murder-for-hire slaying set to dieRolando Ruiz is scheduled to die for the murder-for-hire slaying he carried out more than 24 years ago Rolando Ruiz walked up to a car as it pulled into the driveway of a San Antonio home and said he needed directions. Then he asked Mark Rodriguez, 1 of the 2 men inside the vehicle, "Do I do it?" Rodriguez replied: "Yes." Theresa Rodriguez, Mark's sister-in-law, was getting out the passenger side of the car, looked up at Ruiz as he walked toward her and smiled at him, according to court documents. Ruiz put a .357 Magnum revolver to her head and fired. On Tuesday, Ruiz, 44, was set for lethal injection for the murder-for-hire slaying he carried out more than 24 years ago. Evidence showed he received $2,000 from Mark Rodriguez, whose brother, Michael, stood to collect at least a quarter-million dollars in insurance benefits from his 29-year-old wife's death. Evidence also showed Michael Rodriguez, who also was in the car the night of July 14, 1992, recently had applied for another $150,000 in life insurance for his wife. Ruiz's execution would be the 3rd this year in Texas and the 5th nationally. His lawyers argued to the U.S. Supreme Court that lower courts improperly rejected an earlier appeal. They also contended Ruiz's execution would be unconstitutionally cruel because he's suffered a "uniquely devastating psychological toll" after nearly a quarter-century on death row, multiple execution dates and 2 reprieves. "It is entirely attributable to the state's failure to provide competent lawyers," attorney Lee Kovarsky told the high court in a filing. He also argued the deterrent value of the punishment was "undercut" by the lengthy time between imposing the sentence and carrying it out. State attorneys contended Ruiz's arguments were meant to distract the courts from the weakness of his claims and said Ruiz had taken advantage of legal mechanisms to ensure his conviction and sentence were proper and previous judicial reviews found no constitutional error. While some individual Supreme Court justices have raised questions about long death row confinement, the courts consistently have ruled it was not unconstitutionally cruel, Assistant Texas Attorney General Edward Marshall told the justices. Ruiz's arguments about earlier deficient legal help "have been inspected, scrutinized, studied, probed, analyzed, reviewed and evaluated" at all levels of the federal courts, he said. Ruiz had met Mark Rodriguez at the home of a mutual friend, was arrested nine days after the shooting and implicated the brothers in the contract killing scheme. Police focused on him after receiving a telephone tip after Theresa Rodriguez's employer, the insurance firm USAA, offered a $50,000 reward for information about her slaying. Court records show Ruiz after the shooting drove off in a car waiting for him on the street. Evidence showed Mark Rodriguez already had paid him $1,000, then gave him another $1,000 3 days after the killing. Ruiz had made 2 earlier unsuccessful attempts to kill Theresa Rodriguez. The Rodriguez brothers eventually accepted life prison terms in plea deals. Mark Rodriguez was paroled in 2011. Michael Rodriguez later joined Ruiz on death row as one of the notorious Texas 7, a group of 7 inmates who escaped from a South Texas prison in 2000, remained fugitives for weeks and killed a Dallas-area police officer. He was executed in 2008. He blamed his infatuation with a younger woman for the contract murder plot. Joe Ramon, who accompanied Ruiz the night of the shooting, and Robert Silva, identified as the intermediary who put the Rodriguez brothers in touch with Ruiz, also received life prison sentences. (source: Associated Press) * Texas set to execute triggerman in San Antonio murder-for-hire caseTexas is set to execute hitman Ronaldo Ruiz 25 years after he killed a San Antonio woman for $2,000. It's the fourth time the state has set a date for his death. Prosecutors hope it's the last. It's been almost 25 years since Rolando Ruiz shot and killed a San Antonio woman in her garage. He was a 20-year-old hitman, paid $2,000 by the woman's husband and brother-in-law, who were out to collect her life insurance money. On Tuesday, Texas plans to execute Ruiz - the 4th time the state has set a date for his death in nearly a decade. Ruiz's attorneys are hoping to block this one, too, arguing his nearly 22 years on Texas' death row constitute cruel and unusual punishment. Ruiz killed 29-year-old Theresa Rodriguez in July 1992; he was convicted and sentenced to death almost 3 years later. Rodriguez's husband and brother-in-law, Michael and Mark Rodriguez, both received life sentences. Michael, the husband, escaped from prison in 2000, 1 of the notorious "Texas 7." He was sentenced to death and executed in
