Michael Rodriguez followed through with his wish to be executed as atonement for his crimes.

Michael Rodriguez followed through with his wish to be executed as atonement for his crimes.The twice-convicted killer, notorious as one of the infamous "Texas 7" fugitives, profusely apologized Thursday evening in the seconds before he was put to death for his participation in the fatal shooting of a Dallas-area police officer.
Rodriguez, 45, had ordered his appeals dropped and volunteered for lethal injection.
He also had been convicted and sentenced to life in prison for arranging the murder of his wife at their home in San Antonio."I have done some horrible things," he said from the death chamber gurney. "I ask the Lord to please forgive me.
"I have gained nothing, but just brought sorrow and pain to these wonderful people," he said speaking directly to the widow of the slain officer, four of the officer's friends and his former sister-in-law.Dozens of police officers stood at attention outside the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice until the relatives of the victims who witnessed the execution emerged from the prison and left. They declined to speak to reporters.The slain officer, Aubrey Hawkins, was killed on Christmas Eve 2000, about two weeks after Rodriguez and six other convicts broke out of a South Texas prison. Hawkins had interrupted the escapees' robbery of an Irving sporting goods store and was gunned down.The fugitives were apprehended about a month later in Colorado, where one of them committed suicide."Let's do the right thing — for once," he explained in a recent interview with The Associated Press.He became the eighth convicted killer executed this year in the nation's busiest capital punishment state and the fourth this month. Another is set for next week. He also was the first of the six surviving "Texas 7" gang to be put to death.
Rodriguez for more than two years pushed to have his punishment carried out. A federal judge held competency hearings to ensure Rodriguez could make such a decision. After the judge approved, the execution was stalled while the U.S. Supreme Court considered challenges that lethal injection was unconstitutionally cruel. But after the justices earlier this year ruled the method was not improper, Rodriguez's execution date was set.The seven broke out of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice's Connally Unit by overpowering some workers there, stealing their clothes and breaking into the prison armory to get guns. Their escape was aided by Rodriguez's father, who parked a getaway vehicle nearby, enabling them to ditch a stolen prison truck. Rodriguez's father later was convicted of helping them.
"Rodriguez was one of the more violent ones during the escape," recalled Toby Shook, the former Dallas County assistant district attorney who prosecuted him for capital murder. "He would put these shanks in people's ears while they were being tied up, making threats."During the officer's slaying, where the gang robbed an Irving sporting goods store of $70,000, more guns and the IDs of employees, Rodriguez acknowledged taking the fatally wounded officer's gun and pulling him from his patrol car.Shook said evidence showed he also was among the gang shooting at Hawkins and a gun that was left behind at the scene belonged to Rodriguez. Evidence showed a bullet from that gun was lodged in the dashboard of the officer's car.
"It was headed straight for him," Shook said. "So he was right in front of him and firing directly at him."Hawkins was shot 11 times was run over with his own car.
A month later, Rodriguez and three of the prisoners were captured at a trailer park outside Colorado Springs, Colo. A fifth escapee, Larry Harper, killed himself as police closed in. Two others surrendered two days later, ending a nationwide manhunt.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.
"The memory of Officer Aubrey Hawkins, his dedication to duty and family are cherished by the Irving Police Department and others that knew Aubrey," the Irving department said in a statement released Thursday. "His legacy and his service are not forgotten."Our police family suffered a devastating loss through Aubrey's ultimate sacrifice.""The hardest thing is the constant presence of it," Hawkins' wife, Lori, said before the execution. "It's not like there's one person involved. There are six."She attended the first couple of trials but then stopped.
"It was like reliving it every two years," she said.
She had been married to the officer for four years, then at age 27 became a widow. She has since remarried.
"I had to move on," she said.
Rodriguez said his earlier murder conviction, for paying a hit man to kill his wife, Theresa, was the result of an infatuation with a younger woman who was a student at a university in San Marcos where Rodriguez also was taking classes.
"It was stupid," Rodriguez said.

Posted in: Huntsville Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice