Texas inmate wants to die, but lawyers try to halt execution
HUNTSVILLE, Texas - A Texas man convicted of striking and killing a police lieutenant with an SUV during a chase more than six years ago wants to be put to death Wednesday evening.
But despite Daniel Lee Lopez's wishes and court rulings that he was competent to make that decision, his attorneys are taking their fight to halt the punishment to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Attorney David Dow argues that Lopez' severe mental illness is responsible for his desire to use the legal system for suicide. Dow also says that the March 2009 crime was not a capital murder because Lopez didn't intend to kill Corpus Christi Lt. Stuart Alexander.
Alexander, 47, was standing in a grassy area on the side of a highway where he had put spike strips when he was struck by the sport utility vehicle Lopez was fleeing in in March 2009.
Lopez was convicted and sentenced a year later to death. During his sentencing hearing, Lopez said he wanted to die and that he never meant to kill the officer, reports CBS affiliate KHOU.
"I've accepted my fate," Lopez, 27, said last week from death row. "I'm just ready to move on."
Lopez, who also wrote letters to a federal judge and pleaded for his execution to move forward, said a Supreme Court reprieve would be "disappointing."
Lopez was properly examined by a psychologist, testified at a federal court hearing about his desire to drop appeals and was found to have no mental defects, state attorneys said in opposing delays to the punishment.
Nueces County District Attorney Mark Skurka said Lopez showed "no regard for human life" when he fought with an officer during a traffic stop, then sped away, evading pursuing officers and striking Alexander, who had been on the police force for 20 years. Even when he finally was cornered by police cars, Lopez tried ramming his SUV to escape and didn't stop until he was shot.
"Daniel Lopez is amoral," Skurka said Tuesday. "He had no moral scruples, no nothing. It was always about Daniel Lopez, and it's still about Daniel Lopez. He's a bad, bad guy."
After Lopez was apprehended, deputies found a dozen packets of cocaine and a small scale in a false compartment in the console of the SUV he was driving.
Records show Lopez was on probation at the time. He had previously pleaded guilty to indecency with a child and was a registered sex offender. He had also been arrested in the past for assault.
Lopez would be the 10th inmate executed this year in Texas, which carries out capital punishment more than any other state. Nationally, 18 prisoners have been put to death this year, with Texas accounting for 50 percent of them.