R.I.P Rodrigo Hernandez

Roman Colosseum lit to protest an execution

Texas executed Rodrigo Hernandez on January 26, 2012, for the murder and sexual assault of Susan Verstegen in 1994.  Hernandez was linked to the murder based on a DNA match in 2002.  

Hernandez's current attorneys argued that the lawyers who previously represented Hernandez at trial and in earlier appeals were incompetent for failing to develop and present evidence of Hernandez's mental impairments and intellectual disabilities which made him ineligible for the death penalty. 

This is the second execution in the United States this year, and the first in Texas.