March 8 (UPI) — After the U.S. Supreme Court rejected his last appeal, convicted killer Rolando Ruiz, Jr., was executed Tuesday night by the state of Texas — its third lethal injection in the last two months.
Prison officials at Ruiz’s Huntsville prison administered the lethal drugs at around 10:30 p.m. CST, not long after the Supreme Court’s decision. He was pronounced dead 29 minutes later.
Ruiz had previously received two stays of execution from federal and state appeals courts. Monday, a judge in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit denied another request for a stay and Tuesday night the United States’ highest court followed suit.
Ruiz, 44, was tried and convicted of the 1992 contract killing of Theresa Rodriguez, which was orchestrated by her husband and his brother in order to collect on her $400,000 life insurance policy.
It was said that Ruiz never showed remorse for the 29-year-old woman’s death — but he did so in his final statement.
“Words cannot begin to express how sorry I am and the hurt that I have caused you and your family,” he told the victim’s family moments before his execution began. “To my family, thank you for all your love and support. I am at peace. Jesus Christ is Lord. I love you all.”
“There’s never closure,” her father, Eddie Sanchez, said earlier. “It’s not going to bring my daughter back.”
Rolando Ruiz, Jr., had previously received two stays of execution from federal and state courts. A federal judge, however, denied a request for another this week. Photo courtesy Texas Department of Criinal Justice
Investigators said in the 1990s that Ruiz was paid $2,000 to kill Rodriguez.
As part of a plea agreement, the Rodriguez brothers were sentenced to life in prison but Ruiz was given a death sentence.
Michael Rodriguez was a member of the Texas Seven, a group of prisoners who escaped from prison in Kenedy in 2000. He was executed in 2008 for killing a police officer after his escape.
Ruiz’s execution follows the lethal injections of two other convicted killers this year. Christopher Chubasco Wilkins and Terry Darnell Edwards were put to death on Jan. 11 and Jan. 26, respectively.
Historically, Texas has been the most active state in the country in carrying out capital punishments. Nearly 550 prisoners have been executed there since a U.S. moratorium on the death penalty was lifted in 1976.
Earlier this year, Texas filed lawsuit against the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for preventing the state from importing drugs that are used in lethal injections. Several other states are also having difficulty obtaining the drugs traditionally used in a three-step process. Last week, Arkansas scheduled the executions of eight prisoners on four days in April, purportedly because its supply of one drug will expire in May.
