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Thread: Rolando Ruiz, Jr. - Texas Execution - March 7, 2017

  1. #21
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    How much does it cost the TDCJ per person to house them in the Polunsky Unit? What is the annual budget including transfers to Jails and Courts and the final trip to Huntsville per execution?

  2. #22
    Moderator Ryan's Avatar
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    Judge Sees No Wrongs in Texas Executions

    Texas' execution protocol is constitutional, a federal judge ruled, dismissing a lawsuit from 5 death row inmates who say the state should retest its drugs before killing them.

    Texas revised its lethal-injection procedure in 2012 from a 3-judge cocktail to a dose of compounded pentobarbital. Since then, Texas has executed 30 prisoners without any reported problems, according to U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes' Aug. 19 ruling.

    Texas changed its protocol and started buying its pentobarbital from a compounding pharmacy after large drug manufacturers, unwilling to be complicit in the death penalty, stopped producing the drugs the state used.

    Lead plaintiff Jeffery Wood sued 2 directors of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice and the warden of the Huntsville prison on Aug. 12, seeking an injunction to stop the state from carrying out his execution, which was set for Aug. 24.

    Though Hughes refused to grant Wood relief in the federal case, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday afternoon remanded Wood's case to the trial court that oversaw his death penalty conviction.

    The appeals court told the trial court to look into allegations from Wood's attorneys that a psychiatrist who testified for the prosecution, the late Dr. James Grigson, dubbed "Dr. Death" by the media, lied to the jury about how often he found defendants pose a danger to society in the numerous capital murder trials in which he had testified. Wood's reprieve came on his 43rd birthday, the Texas Tribune reported.

    Church leaders, death penalty opponents and state Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, say Wood does not deserve the death penalty because he didn't kill anyone.

    Wood was sentenced under a Texas law that makes anyone involved in a crime that causes death equally responsible.

    A jury convicted Wood for the 1996 murder of a convenience store clerk in Kerrville, though Wood was sitting outside the store in a pickup when his friend fired the fatal shot.

    Wood is fighting to overturn his death sentence in the state case, but his conviction will stand.

    In his federal lawsuit, Wood says that because Texas agreed to retest its compounded pentobarbital before using it on inmates Perry Williams and Thomas Whitaker in a settlement of their 2013 federal lawsuit, the state should do the same for him and his 4 co-plaintiffs.

    He claims that Texas will violate his Eighth and 14th Amendment rights to be free from cruel and unusual punishment by using a drug that presents a "substantial risk of causing severe pain," an argument his attorneys backed with an affidavit, medical report and lab results from pharmacologist James Ruble and anesthesiologist David Waisel.

    Judge Hughes didn't buy it. Describing Ruble's report as a "pseudo-scientific dump of partial facts and incomplete data" and Waisel's affidavit as rife with "speculative, unsubstantiated, and partial data," Hughes dismissed the case Friday.

    Wood et al. claim Texas uses expired pentobarbital, an argument Hughes found unpersuasive, because the state administers twice the lethal dose to execute prisoners.

    "The plaintiffs have not shown that Texas uses expired drugs to execute people. That should end the inquiry. Their medical support is wholly unreliable to show that the drugs have a demonstrated risk of severe pain," Hughes wrote in a 12-page order, voluminous compared to his typically terse rulings.

    Hughes dismissed most of the claims for not meeting Texas' 2-year statute of limitations for personal injury claims.

    "The equal protection claim will be dismissed because the plaintiffs have not shown that Texas has infringed upon a fundamental right," he wrote.

    Here are the other plaintiffs and their execution dates: Rolando Ruiz, Aug. 31; Robert Jennings, Sept. 14; Terry Edwards, Oct. 19 and Ramiro Gonzales, Nov. 2.

    Texas leads the nation with 6 executions so far this year.

    http://www.courthousenews.com/2016/0...executions.htm

  3. #23
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Lengthy Gap In Texas Executions To Continue As State Court Halts Yet Another

    Ronaldo Ruiz was set to be executed on Aug. 31, but — as with the prior six scheduled executions in Texas that have been stayed or delayed — a Texas court ordered a stay of execution for him on Friday.

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday halted the upcoming execution of Ronaldo Ruiz, who was set to be put to death on Aug. 31.

    Texas was set to execute Ruiz, a hit man in the 1992 murder of a 29-year-old woman. Ruiz, 43, was set to die by lethal injection on Aug. 31 after he was convicted in the murder-for-hire of Theresa Rodriguez.

    Ruiz would have become the sixth inmate to be executed in Texas in 2016.

    In his latest habeas corpus application, Ruiz raised questions about deficiency of his trial counsel and his initial habeas counsel, as well as questions about the constitutionality of executing him “over two decades after his conviction” — a matter the U.S. Supreme Court has repeatedly declined to consider.

    In the Court of Criminal Appeals’ brief, unsigned order, the court restates Ruiz’s claims and then concludes, “After reviewing applicant’s writ application, we have determined that his execution should be stayed pending further order by this Court.”

    The country’s busiest death chamber has not carried out an execution in nearly four months. The past six scheduled executions in Texas — including Ruiz’s previously scheduled July execution date — were stayed, delayed, or withdrawn for various reasons.

    This marks the longest period Texas has gone without killing inmates since 2014, when no executions took place for nearly five months amid furor over Oklahoma’s botched execution of Clayton Lockett and legal challenges related to Texas’ drug secrecy.

    Jason Clark, a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ), told BuzzFeed News prior to Friday’s ruling in Ruiz’s case that the agency was “not involved in setting or withdrawing execution dates.” He added that the TDCJ “stands ready to carry out” executions.

    In a year already marked by fewer executions, Texas is the only state with executions scheduled for the remainder of 2016. Other active death penalty states are grappling with a variety of obstacles ranging from the effect of Supreme Court rulings earlier this year to drug shortages and the fallout from botched executions.

    Even in Texas, in August alone now, three scheduled executions have been stayed — while the date for another was changed.

    Ruiz was hired by two brothers, Mark Rodriguez and Michael Rodriguez, to kill Michael’s wife Theresa for a life insurance scheme. Ruiz shot and killed Theresa in the couple’s garage after following them home from a movie theater. The brothers paid Ruiz $2,000 for the murder.

    Ruiz was first scheduled to die in 2007, but a federal appeals court gave him a reprieve. His execution was then set for July 27 of this year after the US Supreme Court refused to review his case in May 2015. However, his execution was pushed to Aug. 31 because of the state’s failure to sufficiently notify his counsel of his pending execution, Jennifer Moreno, an attorney at the Berkeley Law Death Penalty Clinic told BuzzFeed News.

    On Aug. 19, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit from five death row inmates, including Ruiz, who demanded that the state retest its drugs before executing them. That case is now on appeal before the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals.

    https://www.buzzfeed.com/tasneemnash...AR#.doJ0aedJ40
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  4. #24
    Senior Member CnCP Addict TrudieG's Avatar
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    I can buy the argument that his original trial and habeas counsel may or may not been lacking. The argument that question the constitutionality of executing him nearly two decades later is laughable. Under the constitution he has the right to a speedy trial not a speedy execution since the process of appeals keeping him alive is a lengthy process to ensure his rights. He had no problem murdering but faced with his own mortality he is showing himself to be the coward he is.

  5. #25
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    The 5th Circuit denied stays of execution based on the potency of the pentobarbital that was going to be used on our death row inmates. Not that it matters now anyway.

    http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/opinions...-20556-CV0.pdf

  6. #26
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    ARTICLE 11.071 APPLICATION FOR WRIT OF HABEAS CORPUS DISMISSED WITH WRITTEN ORDER:

    http://www.search.txcourts.gov/Searc...2-ecdc5739488e

    CONCURRING OPINION JUDGE JOHNSON

    http://www.search.txcourts.gov/Searc...0-90d993c38a64

    DISSENTING OPINION JUDGE ALCALA

    http://www.search.txcourts.gov/Searc...f-a3727c20ff58

  7. #27
    Administrator Helen's Avatar
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    Does this mean we will see Ruiz receive an execution date soon?
    "I realize this may sound harsh, but as a father and former lawman, I really don't care if it's by lethal injection, by the electric chair, firing squad, hanging, the guillotine or being fed to the lions."
    - Oklahoma Rep. Mike Christian

    "There are some people who just do not deserve to live,"
    - Rev. Richard Hawke

    “There are lots of extremely smug and self-satisfied people in what would be deemed lower down in society, who also deserve to be pulled up. In a proper free society, you should be allowed to make jokes about absolutely anything.”
    - Rowan Atkinson

  8. #28
    Senior Member CnCP Legend FFM's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Helen View Post
    Does this mean we will see Ruiz receive an execution date soon?
    It's more likely Ruiz will run back to the federal district court again, but the district attorney can get a death warrant if he/she can get around to it. The CCA, after all, is the court that granted the stay in the first place, and now that stay has been dissolved by the same court.

  9. #29
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Court Lifts Execution Reprieve for San Antonio Hit Man

    Texas' highest criminal court lifted a reprieve on Wednesday that, for the second time in a decade, prevented a convicted hit man from being executed for the 1992 slaying of a San Antonio woman.

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals didn't rule on the merits of the appeal filed by 44-year-old Rolando Ruiz, who was five days away from execution when the court stepped in on Aug. 26. Instead, the court ruled that his appeal was not legally proper and dismissed it, clearing the way for prosecutors in Bexar County to seek a new execution date for Ruiz.

    Investigators said Ruiz collected $2,000 to kill Theresa Rodriguez at her home in San Antonio at the request of her husband, Michael, and a brother-in-law as part of a life insurance scheme.

    Ruiz was convicted of being the triggerman in the plot. Michael Rodriguez also was convicted in the case — but he wound up on death row after becoming one of the notorious Texas Seven gang of inmates who escaped from a prison in December 2000 and killed a Dallas-area police officer. Rodriguez was executed in 2008.

    In Ruiz's appeal, his attorneys argued that his trial lawyers and his original appeals lawyers failed to investigate and present mitigating evidence, like his long-term drug abuse and a troubled childhood, that could have convinced jurors to decide on a punishment other than death.

    But in a 6-1 ruling with two judges not participating, the criminal appeals court said that claim had been "fully and completely vetted" by the federal courts over the past seven years. The court said the claims of poor legal help at Ruiz's trial had been "inspected, scrutinized, studied, probed, analyzed, reviewed and evaluated by the three main levels of the federal court system."

    The court also said it had previously rejected the argument raised in the appeal that executing Ruiz more than two decades after his conviction amounted to unconstitutionally cruel and unusual punishment.

    Ruiz came within an hour of lethal injection in 2007 before a panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals stopped his execution. In 2-1 ruling, the judges in the majority said they needed more time to review arguments of poor legal help in early stages of his appeals.

    The case then was sent back to a federal district court, which denied the appeal. The 5th Circuit denied it again, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to review the appeal in 2014.

    http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/c...t-man-43426428
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

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  10. #30
    Administrator Heidi's Avatar
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    Convicted San Antonio hit man gets March 7 execution date

    A convicted hit man has been set for execution early next year for the 1992 slaying of a San Antonio woman.

    Texas Department of Criminal Justice spokesman Jason Clark says the prison agency has received Bexar County court documents setting 44-year-old Rolando Ruiz for lethal injection March 7.

    The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals last month lifted a reprieve it gave Ruiz in August, five days before he was scheduled for execution.

    Ruiz was condemned for collecting $2,000 to kill 29-year-old Theresa Rodriguez at her San Antonio home in a life insurance scheme involving her husband and a brother-in-law.

    In 2007, Ruiz came within an hour of execution before a federal appeals court halted the punishment.

    He's among nine Texas prisoners already with execution dates in 2017.

    http://www.krgv.com/story/34040228/c...execution-date
    An uninformed opponent is a dangerous opponent.

    "Y'all be makin shit up" ~ Markeith Loyd

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