[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS, ALA., USA

[Rick Halperin]

March 26




TEXAS----impending execution

Execution stay chances wither for Lubbock's 'suitcase killer'



The man infamously known in Lubbock and the nation as the "suitcase killer" 
remains on track to be executed Tuesday - a day after his 38th birthday.

Rosendo Rodriguez's chances for a stay of execution withered Friday with the 
U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denying his claims for a new appeal.

Gov. Greg Abbott, who has the authority to commute his death sentence, is 
essentially Rodriguez's unlikely hope to escape death by lethal injection. 
However, on Friday members of the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 
6-0, with one recusal, against recommending to Abbott that his sentence be 
commuted.

Earlier in the week, Lubbock Judge Jim Bob Darnell and justices with the Texas 
Criminal Court of Appeals rejected Rodriguez's new appeals, which included 
pleas for a stay of execution.

Rodriguez would be the 11th Lubbock County defendant to be executed.

Rodriguez's execution will conclude a decade's old homicide case that began in 
2005 when Lubbock landfill workers found the body of 29-year-old Summer Baldwin 
stuffed in a suitcase.

A UPC code found on the bag was the 1st clue that led investigators to identify 
Baldwin's killer as Rodriguez, a Marine reservist from San Antonio who was in 
Lubbock for training.

He was arrested at his parent's residence in San Antonio.

He told investigators he took Baldwin, who was a prostitute, to his hotel in 
Lubbock where the 2 had consensual sex. He said Baldwin attacked him with a 
knife after using drugs and used his combat training to place her in a choke 
hold until she passed out. After checking her pulse, he believed she was dead 
and he bought a suitcase from Walmart, stuffed her body in it and placed her in 
a landfill.

At his capital murder trial, prosecutors accused Rodriguez of raping Baldwin 
and killing her.

Dr. Sridhar Natarajan, the county medical examiner, told jurors he found more 
than 70 blunt-force injuries on Baldwin's body. Her injuries also indicated she 
was raped.

However, Natarajan couldn't provide an exact cause of death and said Baldwin, 
who was 5 weeks pregnant at the time, could have been alive while she was in 
the suitcase and suffocated to death.

Rodriguez also admitted the to the 2004 killing 16-year-old Joanna Rogers, who 
was reported missing in 2004. She was found two years later in a Lubbock 
landfill, stuffed in a suitcase. He also claimed to have acted in self-defense 
in that case, saying the girl attacked him after they had sex because he 
refused to pay her.

Jurors in 2008 convicted Rodriguez of capital murder for Baldwin's killing. 
They deliberated for 2 1/2 hours before returning with a death sentence.

A decades-long appeal process in state and federal courts followed without 
success. In November, Darnell issued Rodriguez's death warrant.

A month before his execution, his attorneys filed a motion for a stay of 
execution and a new appeal that accused Natarajan of falsifying records. The 
appeal cited a 2015 whistleblower lawsuit filed by Natarajan's former employee 
accusing him of improperly managing the medical examiner's office. The employee 
accused Natarajan of delegating autopsies to "untrained" technicians and 
backdating autopsy reports.

The lawsuit was settled out of court with a quarter-million dollar payment to 
the former employee, who signed an affidavit saying her claims did not dispute 
the office's scientific findings.

Rodriguez's lawyers accused prosecutors of hiding the lawsuit from them.

Matt Powell, the Lubbock County District Attorney, called the new appeals 
"nonsense."

Justices with the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the whistleblower 
lawsuit failed to provide a reason to overturn the conviction and death 
sentence.

(source: Lubbock Avalanche-Journal)








ALABAMA:

Ala. Supreme Court won't review cases of 2 death row inmates----The men were 
convicted of separate killings in Birmingham, Alabama



The Alabama Supreme Court won't review the cases of 2 men currently on Alabama 
death row.

In orders issued Friday, the court denied a writ of certiorari -- or a request 
to review -- the case of Willie Earl Scott. The court also quashed a writ of 
certiorari for Alfonzo Morris.

Scott, now 38, was convicted in the Sept. 11, 1999 rape and asphyxiation death 
of 10-year-old Latonya Sager, who was found dead in her bed at her home in 
Birmingham's Norwood neighborhood.

In 2010, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals upheld his conviction and death 
sentence, but the Alabama Supreme Court said that the opinion of a Jefferson 
County judge upholding the conviction was almost identical to briefs filed by 
prosecutors. The court told the county judge to Scott's case and write a new 
opinion.

Morris, 57, was twice convicted and sentenced to death in the 1997 beating 
death of an 85-year-old woman.

Miriam Rochester, who weighed 92 pounds and used a walker, was found in the 
hall of her Second Avenue South home on Feb. 25, 1997. Evidence showed she had 
been knocked to the floor with a blunt object in her living room, but had made 
it to a hallway before receiving the fatal blow. Her house was ransacked, and 
her killer stayed to eat, drink, and smoke in the home.

Morris was convicted and sentenced to death in 2003 for the crime, but the 
Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals overturned the conviction and sentence after 
determining Morris was denied a fair trial because he was not given money to 
hire an independent mental-health expert.

In April 2008, Morris was again tried for the two counts of capital murder, but 
the jury was unable to reach a verdict and the trial court declared a mistrial. 
His 3rd and final trial began the next month, and Morris was again convicted 
and sentenced to death based on the recommendation of the jury.

In 2016, the Alabama Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed a circuit judge's 
dismissal of the inmate's appeal.

(source: correctionsone.com)








USA:

New Executions and a Return to Darker Days



Less than a century ago in the U.S., federal doctors conducted a range of 
experiments on American prisoners, infecting them with cancer, syphilis, the 
pandemic flu, and other illnesses. Although improved bioethics have prevented 
the continuance of such research, lawmakers recently approved an untested and 
potentially brutal means of capital punishment.

Oklahoma, Mississippi, and Alabama authorized nitrogen gas as a method of 
carrying out the death penalty since pharmaceutical companies are increasingly 
refraining from selling lethal injection drugs due to their controversy. Thus, 
the new procedure will expectedly be used for numerous convicts, as reported by 
the Council of State Governments.

Although the use of nitrogen is a faster and cheaper alternative, many are 
concerned that it may inflict cruel and unusual punishment upon inmates.

Cheaper and Faster Alternative

About 1471 executions have been performed in the U.S. since the year 1976, as 
calculated by the Death Penalty Information Center. A study by Susquehanna 
University found the financial implications, with each inmate costing the 
nation $1.12 million more than those in the general prison population. Adoption 
of the nitrogen technique could save the country millions of dollars.

The measure is also quicker than standard techniques. It works by covering the 
individual's mouth and nose with a mask that expels the gas. The compound 
itself is not toxic. In fact, the substance composes 78% of the air we breathe. 
Instead, asphyxiation will result in minutes due to the lack of oxygen.

Are speed and cost efficiency more valuable than the potential agony brought to 
the recipient, however?

According to Representative Jim Hill (R - AL), the process is entirely "humane, 
quick, and painless." The U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board 
asserts that 2 to 3 breaths of the product may result in unconsciousness 
without discomfort or other symptoms.

Lack of Evidence

However, there is insufficient scientific evidence to support both Rep. Hill's 
and the Board's assertions.

A study published in the American Journal of Pathology examined the impact of 
oxygen displacement via nitrogen gas on rats for 24 to 72 minutes. The animals 
resultantly experienced hemorrhaging, excess blood flow and fluid buildup, and 
damage to specific nerve cells of the cortex, hippocampus, brain stem, and 
spinal cord.

Compared to the other gases involved in the trial, nitrogen produced greater 
lesions and massive hemispheric cell necrosis. When performed on the rats, 
brain imaging or other means of tracking pain responses were not conducted. 
Furthermore, the gas has never been tested on humans.

Although lack of oxygen to the brain induces unconsciousness in mere seconds or 
minutes, it is unknown whether the emissions result in agony. Incidentally, an 
unconscious state is not indicative of lack of senses. As reported by Liberty 
Nation, some unconscious patients can react to commands by moving a body part, 
indicating that they are capable of feeling stimuli.

Why does it Matter?

Some may question why the feelings of prisoners during execution matter? After 
all, they were convicted of horrific crimes, such as rape and murder.

Many opponents of capital punishment, however, argue that those on death row 
are undeserving of such treatment, as they may not be entirely able to control 
their actions.

According to LN, 20% of inmates have a personality disorder, especially 
involving abnormalities in the prefrontal cortex. This region of the brain is 
responsible for regulating impulse control, decision making, and other 
executive functions. Thus, ability to control their actions may be impaired.

In fact, it is not uncommon for the prison system to inadequately substitute as 
a psychiatric ward. After committing heinous crimes, often due to their 
illnesses, numerous patients are condemned to solitary confinement, exceedingly 
worsening their symptoms, as explained by the Pulitzer Prize-winning author Ron 
Powers in No One Cares About Crazy People.

Nitrogen gas is an untested method of asphyxiation. Americans will witness what 
seems to be a return of scientific experimentation on prisoners if no 
intervention in the current justice system occurs.

(source: Gabriella Fiorino, Science Correspondent at LibertyNation.com)






***************

The death penalty itself is cruel and unusual



This past week, Oklahoma Attorney General Mike Hunter announced the state's 
plan to use nitrogen inhalation for its executions, marking the 1st time that a 
state is utilizing gas inhalation as its primary method of execution. This is 
the 1st major movement on Oklahoma's capital punishment program since 2015, 
following numerous botched executions and increased judicial scrutiny.

Oklahoma is now carrying the torch in our nation's quest to find the best way 
to end a person's life. This method is untested. The next death row inmate in 
line will be the 1st case study, as policymakers and corrections officers watch 
his or her life extinguished before their very eyes.

Capital punishment is not a medical procedure. It is not a science. You cannot 
run medical trials on the procedures and drugs designed to kill healthy 
persons. We have opted to use death row inmates as guinea pigs, documenting 
their deaths so we can better execute the next in-line.

Lethal injection was supposed to be the answer. A clean and scientific death 
that does not even approach "cruel and unusual." Yet, the past decade has 
erased that facade. In 2014, the state of Ohio executed Dennis McGuire using an 
untested drug cocktail after supplies of its primary drug had expired. It took 
26 minutes before McGuire was pronounced dead, with the priest who gave McGuire 
his last rites describing his death "like a fish lying along the shore puffing 
for that one gasp of air that would allow it to breathe."

Faced with dwindling supplies of execution drugs, states have opted to explore 
what drug combinations and execution methods are most effective, essentially 
legalizing torture in order to achieve their goals. While capital punishment 
was once viewed as a humane medical procedure, it can now be likened to a 
serial killer searching for his niche.

This reckless attitude toward capital punishment has led to detrimental effects 
within the medical community as well. Drug manufacturers, fearful that state 
corrections departments will use their drugs for executions, have restricted 
their availability. Hospira ceased manufacture of sodium thiopental, a common 
anesthetic, because of the drug's use in executions, thus making the drug 
unavailable domestically. E.U. regulators threatened to halt manufacture of 
propofol, another common anesthetic used in the United States, after the state 
of Missouri deceptively obtained twenty vials of propofol for its corrections 
department. 20 vials put millions at risk.

Missouri is not the only state to illegally obtain these drugs. Hospira was the 
only manufacturer approved by the FDA to produce sodium thiopental; any states 
importing the drug were doing so illegally. DEA agents have raided prisons in 
Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama, seizing illegally obtained supplies 
of sodium thiopental. Our corrections departments and attorney generals are 
operating in the shadows, skirting the very laws they have sworn to uphold in 
order to satisfy their affinity for capital punishment.

Looking beyond the moral implications, there is no sound or rational argument 
to be made in support of capital punishment. From a justice perspective, 
America's judicial system is not infallible, even when a defendant's life is at 
stake. Since 1973, 144 defendants sentenced to death have been exonerated. Yet, 
a statistical analysis of death penalty cases has estimated the rate of 
erroneous convictions is much higher, around 4 %. To put that into perspective, 
approximately 120 of the 3,000 inmates currently on death row could be 
innocent.

>From a deterrence perspective, it is difficult to track the effect of capital 
punishment on violent crime and homicide rates, given the numerous factors that 
impact crime. But the studies that have been conducted show that capital 
punishment has little to no effect on homicide rates. This conclusion makes 
sense. Most homicides are crimes of passion, rather than the result of 
premeditation. Even with premeditated homicides, criminals are more worried 
about being caught, and less so about what happens after they are caught.

We choose lethal injection because it satisfies our desire for "justice." 
Firing squads and electric chairs present us with too much gore or visible 
agony. We want to satisfy our internal bloodlust, without any actual blood 
getting in the way. Lethal injection is "cleaner." The image of doctors in 
white lab coats administering a carefully crafted medical drug does not quite 
afflict the squeamish like the sight of a prisoner, blindfolded and tied up, 
being ripped apart by gunfire.

But shiny needles and clean scrubs divert our eyes away from the reality that 
we are inflicting what can only be deemed as "cruel and unusual punishment" 
upon death row inmates. If recent botched lethal injections are any indication, 
these procedures are becoming less like a scientific procedure and more like a 
gambling addiction. Oklahoma's shift to nitrogen inhalation is simply another 
roll of the dice.

(source: Nathan Campbell is a senior majoring in environmental 
engineering----The (Univ. Alabama) Crimson White)