A paid hit man was executed in Texas for gunning down a San Antonio woman in a life insurance scheme nearly a quarter-century ago.
Rolando Ruiz was given a lethal injection for fatally shooting Theresa Rodriguez, 29, outside her home in 1992 as she was getting out of a car with her husband and brother-in-law, who both orchestrated her murder. Ruiz was paid USD 2,000 to carry out the killing.
Ruiz, strapped to the Texas death chamber gurney, looked directly at two sisters of his victim and their husbands and apologised profusely.
"Words cannot begin to express how sorry I am and the hurt I have caused you and your family," he told them as they looked through a window a few feet from him. "May this bring you peace and forgiveness."
As the lethal dose of pentobarbital was administered, he took several deep breaths, then began snoring quietly. All movement stopped within about 30 seconds.
Ruiz, 44, was pronounced dead 29 minutes later at 11:06 pm.
His execution was the third this year in Texas and the fifth nationally.
"It's not going to bring her back, so it really doesn't mean very much," Susie Sanchez, whose daughter was killed in the contract murder, said. Her daughters, who were among the witnesses Tuesday night, declined to comment afterward.
The execution was delayed for nearly five hours until the US Supreme Court rejected three appeals attorneys had filed for Ruiz to try to stop the punishment.
His lawyers argued to the high court that lower courts improperly rejected an earlier appeal that focused on whether Ruiz earlier had deficient legal help. They also contended Ruiz's execution would be unconstitutionally cruel because he's been on death row since 1995, had multiple execution dates and two reprieves.
Attorney Lee Kovarsky blamed the long time between a San Antonio jury's verdict and the punishment on the state's failure to provide Ruiz with competent lawyers earlier in his appeals.
Justice Stephen Breyer said he would have stopped the execution to further examine the question of prolonged death row confinement.
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