[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS
March 27 TEXASexecution Texas executes inmate who killed woman, stuffed body in a suitcase Rosendo Rodriguez III, 38, was executed Tuesday evening in Huntsville for the 2005 murder of a Lubbock woman whose battered naked body was found stuffed in a suitcase that had been dumped in the trash. Summer Baldwin was a prostitute who was 10 weeks pregnant when she was raped and beaten to death, according to court records. Landfill workers in Lubbock found her body in September 2005. The suitcase purchase was tracked back to Rodriguez, who had been in Lubbock for Marine reserve training. He was arrested at his parents' home in San Antonio. Rodriguez, who became known as the “suitcase killer,” also confessed to killing a 16-year-old Lubbock girl and disposing of her body in a similar manner. The U.S. Supreme Court refused without comment to block the execution less than 30 minutes before Rodriguez was scheduled to be taken into the death chamber in Huntsville. His lawyers had questioned the credibility of a medical examiner who testified at Rodriguez's trial about the fatal injuries Baldwin suffered. Rodriguez becomes the 4th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in tTexas and the 549th overall since the state resumed executions on December 7, 1982. Rodriguez becomes the 7th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1472nd overall since the nation resumed executions on Janaury 17, 1977. (sources: Associated Press & 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 27 GREAT BRITAIN: A brief history of capital punishment in BritainBetween the late 17th and early 19th century, Britain's 'Bloody Code' made more than 200 crimes - many of them trivial - punishable by death. Writing for History Extra, criminologist and historian Lizzie Seal considers the various ways in which capital punishment has been enforced throughout British history and investigates the timeline to its abolition in 1965 British forms of punishment From as early as the Anglo-Saxon era, right up to 1965 when the death penalty was abolished, the main form of capital punishment in Britain was hanging. Initially, this involved placing a noose around the neck of the condemned and suspending them from the branch of a tree. Ladders and carts were used to hang people from wooden gallows, which entailed death by asphyxiation. In the late 13th century the act of hanging morphed into the highly ritualised practice of 'drawing, hanging and quartering' - the severest punishment reserved for those who had committed treason. In this process, 'drawing' referred to the dragging of the condemned to the place of execution. After they were hanged, their body was punished further by disembowelling, beheading, burning and 'quartering' - cutting off the limbs. The perpetrator's head and limbs were often publicly displayed following the execution. Later, the 'New Drop' gallows - first used at London's Newgate Prison in 1783 - could accommodate two or three prisoners at a time and were constructed on platforms with trapdoors through which the condemned fell. The innovation of the 'long drop' [a method of hanging which considered the weight of the condemned, the length of the drop and the placement of the knot] in the later 19th century caused death by breaking the condemned's neck, which was deemed quicker and less painful than strangling. Burning at the stake was another form of capital punishment, used in England from the 11th century for heresy and the 13th century for treason. It was also used specifically for women convicted of petty treason (the charge given for the murder of her husband or employer). Though hanging replaced burning as the method of capital punishment for treason in 1790, the burning of those suspected of witchcraft was practiced in Scotland until the 18th century. For other - perhaps luckier - souls and for those of noble birth who were condemned to die, execution by beheading (which was considered the least brutal method of execution) was used until the 18th century. Death by firing squad was also used as form of execution by the military. The 'Bloody Code' Britain's 'Bloody Code' was the name given to the legal system between the late-17th and early-19th century which made more than 200 offences - many of them petty - punishable by death. Statutes introduced between 1688 and 1815 covered primarily property offences, such as pickpocketing, cutting down trees and shoplifting. Nevertheless, despite the 'mushrooming' of capital crimes, fewer people were actually executed in the 18th century than during the preceding 2 centuries. This paradox can be explained by the specificity of the capital statutes, which meant it was often possible to convict people of lesser crimes. For example, theft of goods above a certain value carried the death penalty, so the jury could circumvent this by underestimating the value of said goods. Certain regions with more autonomy, including Scotland, Wales and Cornwall, were particularly reluctant to implement the Bloody Code and, by the 1830s, executions for crimes other than murder had become extremely rare. Vocal critics of the Bloody Code included early 19th-century MP Sir Samuel Romilly, who worked for its reform. A barrister by profession, he was appointed solicitor general [a senior law officer of the crown] and entered the House of Commons in 1806. He succeeded in repealing the death penalty for some minor crimes and in ending the use of disembowelling convicted criminals while alive. Later, liberal MP William Ewart brought bills which abolished hanging in chains (in 1834) and ended capital punishment for cattle stealing and other minor offences (in 1837). In the 1840s, prominent figures including writers Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray highlighted what they believed to be the brutalising effects of public hanging. Far from encouraging solemnity, hangings were entertaining spectacles that whipped up the crowd's passions, they argued - and the presence of the crowd was a potential source of unruliness. Dickens attended the executions of Maria and Frederick Manning at Horsemonger Lane Gaol, south London, in 1849. The pair had been convicted of the murder of a customs official named Patrick O'Connor, whom they had killed and buried under the kitchen floorboards at their London home. Their case was nicknamed by the press: "the Bermondsey Horror". Dickens later
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----MO., NEB., COLO., CALIF., USA
March 27 MISSOURI: May 2019 trial date set in 2016 Hannibal shooting death A 2019 trial date was set Monday for the Hannibal man charged in the January 2016 shooting death of a Hannibal woman and the shooting of her husband. Court records show that Timothy M. Brokes is set to go to trial starting May 7, 2019, which is expected to last 10 days. The jury will be brought in from Franklin County. If Brokes is convicted, Marion County Prosecuting Attorney David Clayton said he will seek the death penalty. Brokes, 36, has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action in the Jan. 12, 2016, shooting death of 30-year-old Brittany S. Gauch and to 1st-degree assault and armed criminal action in the shooting of her husband, Aaron M. Gauch, the same day. A ruling was not made regarding whether recorded statements Brokes made to police in the Marion County Jail after his arrest are admissible in court. His attorneys, Assistant Public Defenders David Kenyon and Charles Hoskins, argue that the statements, which included a private conversation Brokes had with his attorney, should not be admitted during the trial. During a January hearing, Judge Rachel Bringer Shepherd said she would wait for a Missouri Supreme Court ruling on a similar case. SClBAlso Monday, Brokes' attorneys argued to suppress evidence collected during the search of 1104 Summer St. in Hannibal, where Brittany Gauch was fatally shot, and the Bel-Air Motel in Monroe City, where Brokes allegedly stayed after the shootings.SClBPolice reportedly found bullet fragments, cellphones and other items in Hannibal, and a gun was recovered from the hotel.SClBClayton argued that Brokes' rights were not violated during the search. Brokes is set to go to trial starting June 12 in Monroe County, where he faces charges of assault on a law enforcement officer, armed criminal action and hindering prosecution of a felony. A pretrial hearing in that case is set for May 15. Brokes is being held in the Marion County Jail. (source: The Herald-Whig) NEBRASKA: ACLU of Nebraska files new challenge to state's death penalty The ACLU of Nebraska has filed a new legal challenge to the state's death penalty, claiming that the state adopted a flawed execution protocol without adequate public review in 2017. The civil rights organization, which had a recent challenge to capital punishment dismissed, filed a new lawsuit Monday in Lancaster County District Court. The lawsuit asked the court to block any pending executions until the state enacts a protocol that is in compliance with the state's Administrative Procedures Act, and has proper public input and review. "The (Nebraska Department of Correctional Services) promulgated this very important protocol, upon which lives literally depend, on a single try and without making any drafts or working copies at all, and without consulting any public or private experts," the lawsuit states. The new challenge comes as Nebraska is preparing for its 1st executions in more than 2 decades. 2 convicted murderers, Jose Sandoval and Carey Dean Moore, have been informed in recent months of the state's intention to seek execution dates for them. That has prompted new challenges by the ACLU of the state's lethal injection protocol and of its procurement of new drugs needed to carry out executions. The organization recently lost a lawsuit questioning the 2016 voter referendum that reinstated capital punishment. But two weeks ago, it asked the federal Drug Enforcement Administration to formally investigate how the state recently obtained a new supply of 4 execution drugs. The new lawsuit on Monday was filed on behalf of State Sen. Ernie Chambers of Omaha, a leading opponent of the death penalty, and the Rev. Stephen Griffith, who said he was prevented from participating in the rule-making process in 2017 that led to the execution protocol. In January 2017, the state adopted a new lethal injection protocol designed to give the state corrections director wide latitude to choose the type and source of drugs being used and to keep that information confidential. 20 people testified at a public hearing over the change on Dec. 30, 2016. (source: Omaha World-Herald) COLORADO: 3 Ways to Kill the Death Penalty in Colorado The Colorado Supreme Court recently upheld a lower court's decision to reverse David Bueno's first-degree-murder conviction because evidence that might have helped him was withheld in his death-penalty case. Michael Radelet, a University of Colorado Boulder sociology professor and author of The History of the Death Penalty in Colorado, the definitive work on its subject, sees the Bueno case as a particularly compelling argument in favor of ending capital punishment in the state once and for all, and he sees multiple possibilities for how it might finally happen. "There are 3 scenarios," says Radelet,
[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, N.C., ALA., OHIO, ARK.
March 27 TEXASimpending execution Lubbock's "suitcase killer" fights upcoming executionRosendo Rodriguez is set to die for killing a Lubbock prostitute and tossing her body in a dumpster in a suitcase. His final appeals claim the medical examiner's testimony that she was sexually assaulted before her death could be invalid. The man dubbed Lubbock's "suitcase killer" is set for execution Tuesday evening, 1 day after his 38th birthday. Rosendo Rodriguez was sentenced to death in the 2005 murder and sexual assault of Summer Baldwin, a newly pregnant prostitute, according to court records. Baldwin's body was found folded inside a suitcase at the city's landfill. Rodriguez was also implicated in the 2004 murder of 16-year-old Joanna Rogers, whose body was also found in a suitcase in the landfill after Baldwin was discovered. He still has a final appeal pending in the U.S. Supreme Court questioning the credibility of the medical examiner's testimony and arguing that Baldwin wasn't sexually assaulted, but if it is rejected, Rodriguez will become the 4th person executed in Texas this year and the 7th in the nation. Lubbock County Criminal District Attorney Matt Powell told the Texas Tribune Monday that he finds no joy in the execution but that Rodriguez is a man who deserves the ultimate punishment. "Who sticks a human being in a suitcase and throws them out with the trash?" Powell questioned. "This was a guy that, left unchecked, was going to hurt somebody else again and was going to continue to terrorize women." At the time of Baldwin's death, Rodriguez was in Lubbock training for the U.S. Marines, according to court opinions. He was tied to the murder after investigators found the suitcase she was in had been purchased with Rodriguez's debit card. Further investigation found Baldwin's blood and a tag for the suitcase in his hotel room. Rodriguez told police the 2 had consensual sex but that when he fought with her over her drug use afterward, she lunged at him with knives and he put her in a chokehold, accidentally killing her. But the medical examiner, Sridhar Natarajan, said Baldwin's body showed injuries consistent with sexual assault, upping the charges and making the murder case eligible for the death penalty. Prosecutors offered to accept a life sentence instead of the death penalty if Rodriguez also confessed to the murder of Rogers the year before and helped authorities find her body, according to court documents. He was already connected to her disappearance before Baldwin's murder based on internet chats and phone records. Rodriguez confessed to Rogers' murder and told investigators he had also put her body in a dumpster in a suitcase. She was eventually found in the same landfill as Baldwin. But before the court appearance to finalize the plea deal, Rodriguez backed out, claiming he couldn't understand anything he was being told by his attorney. Though they couldn't use the Rogers confession, Lubbock County prosecutors decided to seek the death penalty in Baldwin's case. He was found guilty of capital murder and, during his punishment trial, though attorneys presented evidence of an abusive, alcoholic father and his family portrayed Rodriguez as a prior Texas Tech student who could have become president, ex-girlfriends and other women said he raped or assaulted them. The jury chose death. But Rodriguez's lawyers haven't given up on his life. His final appeals lay in the hands of the U.S. Supreme Court justices. The filing argues that a recent lawsuit calls into question the credibility of the medical examiner's testimony that defined the Baldwin case as sexual assault - which is what made the case a death penalty case. (Prosecutors at trial also argued Rodriguez's case could be death-penalty eligible because Baldwin was pregnant, but the argument was pushed aside in appeals because there was no indication Rodriguez knew she was pregnant.) Last year, Natarajan and Lubbock County paid $230,000 in settling a wrongful termination lawsuit after a former employee claimed she was fired for speaking out on the medical examiner's habit of leaving the office and delegating autopsies to unqualified staff and then signing off on them. Rodriguez's lawyer, Seth Kretzer, said the lawsuit and settlement raise suspicion of Natarajan's testimony in Baldwin's case and should be evaluated in federal court. "At the minimum, we should be allowed to take the good doctor's deposition and find out if he actually did the autopsy or not," Kretzer said, adding that he'll fight for his client until the last hour of the last day of his life. Natarajan, who still serves as the county's chief medical examiner, did not return phone calls Monday. But Powell said the appeal is nonsense, adding that he was there while Natarajan performed Baldwin's autopsy. "I have no trouble with his lawyers exhausting every avenue that they can, but
