Texas Executes Convicted Killer

HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) _ Convicted killer Rodrigo Hernandez has been executed in Texas for the abduction, rape and strangulation of a 38-year-old woman in San Antonio 18 years ago.

Hernandez, 38, received lethal injection for killing Susan Verstegen more than two hours after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected an appeal. She was attacked behind a supermarket where she was working. Her body was found dumped in a garbage barrel behind a San Antonio church.

The 1994 slaying went unsolved for eight years until Hernandez, as a requirement for parole from a Michigan prison, submitted a DNA sample that went into a national database. The DNA linked him to her death.

DNA more recently also tied Hernandez to a 1991 slaying in Michigan.

(Copyright 2012 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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