Texas inmate who wanted to die is executed
HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- Texas inmate Daniel Lee Lopez has been put to death for killing a police lieutenant with an SUV during a chase more than six years ago.
Lopez's lethal injection Wednesday evening was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected appeals from his attorneys. The attorneys argued Lopez's mental illness was responsible for him trying to use the legal system for suicide. They disregarded both his desire to die and lower court rulings that Lopez was competent to make that decision.
The 27-year-old was convicted of killing Corpus Christi Lt. Stuart Alexander in March 2009. Alexander was standing in a grassy area on the side of a highway where he had laid down spike strips to try to stop Lopez, who was fleeing from other officers.
Lopez swerved and struck Alexander, killing him.
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."
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."
His execution is the 10th this year in Texas, the most of any state.