Posted on 07/20/2005 1:24:13 PM PDT by radar101
A convicted murderer awaiting execution at San Quentin State Prison has died of an apparent heroin overdose -- making him California's first inmate to OD on Death Row.
Nicholas Rodriguez, a 27-year-old Los Angeles gang member, was sentenced to die in 2001 for shooting two teenagers to death while fleeing a robbery and for strangling a fellow gang member and gouging out his eyes before dumping the body in a canyon.
While the clock ticked on his date with a lethal injection of potassium chloride, Rodriguez somehow managed to score enough drugs and the paraphernalia to get high. Corrections Department spokeswoman Terry Thornton said 42 other Death Row inmates have either committed suicide, been killed or died of natural causes during the state's nearly 30 years of record keeping. But none had died of a drug overdose until now.
Michael Camacho, the L.A. deputy district attorney who prosecuted Rodriguez for the 1999 crimes, said the apparent overdose didn't surprise him. Rodriguez had a history of drug use, he said, and drugs are easy to get in prison -- even on Death Row
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
I can't wait to hear how drugs are easy to get on death row.
who cares. I like the fact that there's one less scumbag leaching off the system.
While the clock ticked on his date with a lethal injection of potassium chloride
He had at least 20 years before the state would've done it for him. The clock in Ca. death row ticks mighty slowly.
Making heroin available to death row inmates could serve to reduce Death Row overcrowding, as well as curtail endless legal appeals.
Maybe we should PROVIDE these scumbags with drugs in order to lessen the overall costs........
We should make them more easily obtainable.
I would make it a point to make sure it was easy for them to get... save the country a lot of time and money
Fine upstanding human being for sure....
I'm all for it!
I say, give em all the drugs they want, and give them a rope to hang themselves with too.
Agreed.
Plus it saves the taxpayers electricity bill money.
And plenty of shaving materials too!
Look at the bright side; the guards smuggling in the drugs just got a huge raise from the state.
Good job.
If the War on Drugs can't even keep heroin off of Death Row, it's time to scrap it as a complete failure.
And the problem with that is???
The only improvement I can think of is if he does it before the trial.
I'm going to come out and say that I think heroin should pretty much be legal anyways. Anyone who is stupid or desperate enough to try this drug shouldn't be breathing the same air as the rest of us anyways. Meanwhile our 2nd, 4th, 9th and 10th Amendment rights are being violated so that prisons can be filled with non-violent drug offenders. We're taxed to death, and meanwhile, drugs are in the military, our schools, and yes, even on death row.
I have friends who have snorted cocaine and heroin, eaten LSD and mescaline, smoked pot, crack, and done every other drug you can think of. Something was wrong with them for wanting to go against the good parenting and common sense they were provided with in their upbringing. They didn't have to steal to use these drugs, and except for their families and friends, no one else was hurt by their drug use. Any violent or destructive activities, or theft, should be dealt with as a crime, but drug use itself is not a criminal act.
If some guy wants to grow, sell, or smoke pot, that's his problem. Likewise the crackhead or the heroin junky. Obviously the crackheads and the junkies are far more dangerous to society, their drugs should be legal so that people stupid enough to indulge will die off quicker.
PS - in addition to my stupid friends, I have family members who have died from drug overdoses. I really have no sympathy for people who are dumb enough to do hard drugs like this. Good riddance.
More than likely this guy had a visit over the weekend where he got the drugs. Or, one of the (inmate) porters or other inmates on death row had a visit and it's nothing for them to pass stuff from cell to cell. Syringes are easy to get ahold of in jail. Civilian medical staff leaves those things laying around, or leave doors to supply rooms unlocked more than you'd believe. And diabetic staff who get lazy will toss their syringes away in the garbage, which inmates usually empty. I saw it happen plenty of times in the prisons I worked in.
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