USA - Michael Rodriguez was executed today in Texas

Michael Rodriguez was executed today. Rodriguez, who had dropped all appeals and volunteered for lethal injection, apologized profusely. Rodriguez, 45, was the first of the six surviving "Texas 7" band to be put to death. Rodriguez for more than two years pushed to have his punishment carried out. He already was serving a life prison term for arranging the fatal shooting of his wife in San Antonio in 1992 when he and six fellow inmates broke out of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Connally Unit in December 2000 by overpowering some workers there, stealing their clothes and breaking into the prison armory to get guns. Two weeks after the break, on Christmas Eve evening, the fugitives shot and killed Aubrey Hawkins, a policeman, during a robbery. A month later, Rodriguez and three of the prisoners were captured in Colorado. A 4th escapee, Larry Harper, killed himself as police closed in. 2 others surrendered 2 days later, ending one of Texas' most notorious prison breaks. His five remaining accomplices -- George Rivas, Randy Halprin, Donald Newbury, Joseph Garcia and Patrick Murphy -- joined him on death row. Appeals for each remain in the courts and none has an execution date. Rodriguez becomes the 8th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in Texas and the 413th overall since the state resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982. Rodriguez becomes the 20th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA and the 1119th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977. The US Supreme Court had re-legalized the death penalty on July 2, 1976.