Texas set to execute killer-for-hire

Washington (AFP) – The state of Texas on Tuesday prepared to execute a man convicted of taking $2,000 for the 1992 murder of a woman in a murder-for-hire plot to obtain life insurance money.
Rolando Ruiz, now 44, is scheduled for execution by lethal injection late Tuesday at the state prison in Huntsville.
Ruiz’s lawyers launched a last minute appeal to obtain a reprieve, claiming among other things that he did not receive an adequate defense.
In July 1992, a man named Mark Rodrigue