Texas inmate who dropped appeals headed to execution

Texas inmate Daniel Lee Lopez wants to be put to death for striking and killing a police lieutenant with an SUV during a chase more than six years ago.

The justices turned down an appeal from Lopez’s attorneys who disregarded both his desire to die and lower court rulings that Lopez was competent to make that decision.

The higher court disagreed with Lopez’s lawyers and state attorneys refused any delay in his execution, according to media.

Lopez was convicted for the 2009 killing of Lieutenant Stuart Alexander, whom he ran over in a auto as he was being sought by police, according to CBS television affiliate KWTX.

Alexander was standing near a highway exit and had erected markers when Lopez struck him with a 4WD vehicle, KWTX said.

Lopez says it’s a waste of time sitting on death row.

Lopez later said he tried to flee because he thought there was a warrant out for his arrest for parole violations.

Freeman said hours before the execution Vicky Alexander had sympathy for Lopez’s family and what they are going through.

Convicted murderer Daniel Lee Lopez is scheduled to be executed in Huntsville Wednesday – and it’s exactly what he wanted. “I’ve replayed it in my mind many times”. He had previously pleaded guilty to indecency with a child and was a registered sex offender.

Deputies found a dozen packets of cocaine and a small scale in a false compartment in the console of the SUV. Texas has scheduled back-to-back executions Wednesday and Thursday for Lopez and Tracy Lane Beatty.

The execution would be the 10th so far this year in Texas. Nationally, 18 prisoners have been put to death this year, with Texas accounting for 50 percent of them. He’s on death row for the 2003 slaying of his 62-year-old mother, Carolyn Click, near Tyler in East Texas.

This undated handout photo provided by the Texas Department of…