US SC grants Texas’ inmate execution request

Lopez, who has been trying to speed up his execution since being sent to death row five years ago for killing a police lieutenant, is scheduled to die Aug. 12, the first of two executions scheduled this week in Texas. AP

HUNTSVILLE, Texas, United States—A Texas inmate wants to be put to death Wednesday evening for striking and killing a police lieutenant with a car during a chase more than six years ago, and the US Supreme Court is allowing his wishes to be carried out.

The justices turned down an appeal from Daniel Lee Lopez’ attorneys who disregarded both his desire to die and lower court rulings that Lopez was competent to make that decision. The order was issued about five hours before Lopez could be taken to the death chamber in Huntsville, Texas, for lethal injection.

Attorney David Dow, who is representing Lopez, told the court that his client’s desire to use the legal system for suicide was rooted in his “obvious and severe mental illness.” Dow also argued 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 a sport utility vehicle Lopez was fleeing in.

“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.”

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.”

Lopez was properly examined by a psychologist, testified that he wanted to drop appeals and was found to have no mental defects, state attorneys said in opposing delays to the punishment.

Records show Lopez was on probation at the time after pleading guilty to indecency with a child and was a registered sex offender. He had other arrests 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.