[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

March 27



TEXAS----execution

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)