Inmate who raped, killed pregnant woman wants to stay of execution in Texas

Texas inmate Rosendo Rodriguez died in a row for the brutal 2005 murder of a pregnant prostitute in Lubbock, Texas.

(Associated Press)

A lawyer who is a prisoner on death row in Texas scheduled for execution next month has filed an appeal for a stay, claiming prosecutors withheld information from a separate lawsuit.

Rosendo Rodriguez, 37, a former Navy reservist known as the “Suitcase Killer”, was sentenced to death for the brutal rape and murder of a pregnant prostitute at a Lubbock hotel in 2005, the Houston Chronicle.

Her body was later found covered in blunt-force wounds and stuffed in a suitcase at the Lubbock city dump.

In 2015, is a former employee of the Lubbock medical examiner who was responsible for the conducting of an autopsy of the victim, claimed that the doctor has not the surgery itself. The lawsuit further claimed that the doctor often visited his own consulting firm, and in some cases not to perform their own autopsies.

According to the court papers, the lawsuit was eventually settled for more than $200,000, shortly before a court date for Rodriguez.

On Tuesday, a lawyer Seth Kretzer occupation in which he accused the prosecutor of not providing information about the suit. Kretzer specifically invoked in 1963 a Supreme court ruling that requires prosecutors to disclose all evidence that could exonerate the accused.

Matt Powell, Lubbock County district attorney, said it was “nonsense” that the lawsuit and Rodriguez conviction might have something to do with each other and contained “absolutely no Brady information.”

Kretzer said withholding information from the trial was “sufficiently egregious to ask for a stay of execution.”

Rodriguez the execution is scheduled for March 27, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

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