April 10
TEXAS:
Condemned man in Dallas County case loses federal appeal
A Dallas-area man sent to death row for the robbery-slaying of his former
girlfriend 9 years ago has lost an appeal of his conviction.
The rejection by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans
moves Robert Jean Hudson closer to his execution. He argued that his trial
lawyer was ineffective, the Dallas County sheriff's department had
forcibly medicated him during his capital murder trial, and a lower
appeals court improperly followed the law when it denied him a hearing.
The Irving man was convicted of the May 1999 fatal stabbing of 35-year-old
Edith Kendrick at her apartment in Mesquite. The attack also left her
8-year-old son severely stabbed.
Hudson still could appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. The justices have
effectively stopped all executions while it considers whether lethal
injection procedures like those used in Texas are constitutionally proper.
Hudson hasn't had an execution date set.
(source: Associated Press)
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Rodriguez set for another step toward death row
9 days after a Randall County jury sentenced Rosendo Rodriguez III to
death, Judge Jim Bob Darnell will formally sentence him today in the 140th
District Court.
Rodriguez was convicted last month of capital murder for the rape and
murder of Summer Baldwin and the death of her unborn son in 2005.
Rodriguez killed Baldwin in a Lubbock hotel room after having sex with the
29-year-old.
He then stuffed her in a suitcase, threw her in a Dumpster and ate a
couple of fast-food value meals.
After convicting him, jurors learned during the punishment phase of the
trial of Rodriguez's history of rape and violence.
5 women, including his high-school girlfriend, testified he had raped
them.
The girlfriend said he also became violent at times, once dragging her
from a lake house through the gravel to a parked car.
The gruesome trial lasted almost a week and a half, culminating in
Rodriguez's death sentence and the jury finding out that he also confessed
to killing Joanna Rogers, a Lubbock teen who went missing in 2004.
Today Darnell will read the judgment and Rodriguez will be fingerprinted.
(source: Avalanche-Journal)