Texas Murderer Welcomes Execution

LIVINGSTON, Texas — Michael Rodriguez remembers the exhilaration of newfound freedom when he hid in the back of a stolen truck as he and six of his buddy convicts staged one of Texas' most notorious prison breaks.

Then he recalls seeing his photo on national TV and grasping the reality that their Hollywood-style plan to rob a Nevada casino had gone terribly awry. He and his fellow fugitives were being hunted everywhere as the killers of a police officer, Aubrey Hawkins, at a store they robbed outside Dallas.

This week, Rodriguez is set to become the first of the six surviving members of the infamous "Texas 7" — all of them now on death row — to go to the death chamber.

"I'm glad we got caught, so no one else would get hurt," Rodriguez said, discussing with a reporter for the first time his involvement in the crime spree eight years ago.

At what point does this become some wacky form of euthanasia?

"I'm just moving forward," Rodriguez said from a small visiting cage at the Polunsky Unit of the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, site of the state's death row. "Look. I'm guilty of what they said — everything."

And he said he wants the family of his former wife, Theresa, and the relatives the slain police officer "to know how truly sorry I am and I am willing to pay."

"I think it's a fair sentence," he added. "I need to pay back. I can't pay back monetarily. This is the way." - Fox News

Kudos to Rodriguez for admitting he's fully accountable.