Inmate wants to die as scheduled

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.

Daniel Lopez, 27, was convicted for the 2009 killing of Lieutenant Stuart Alexander, whom he ran over in a vehicle as he was being sought by police, according to CBS television affiliate KWTX. The 20-year veteran was laying out spike strips on a freeway exit ramp in an attempt to stop Alexander, who was fleeing from police in an SUV.

Early Wednesday afternoon the Supreme Court rejected arguments that Lopez was trying to use the legal system to commit suicide, and refused to block the execution.

The officer’s widow, Vicky Alexander, and four friends who were witnesses with her prayed in the chamber before a physician pronounced Lopez dead.

Alexander had been a police officer for 20 years. “I just feel I need to get over with it”.

A Texas inmate convicted of killing a police officer was executed, after he waived his appeals, saying he wanted to die, prison officials and local media said. “It was always about Daniel Lopez, and it’s still about Daniel Lopez”, Skurka said Tuesday.

“It’s a disgusting dream”, Lopez said from death row.

“I’ve accepted my fate”, he said.

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. Lopez had previously pleaded guilty to indecency with a child and was on probation. He had other arrests for assault.

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.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence on direct appeal on October 31, 2012. He’s on death row for the 2003 slaying of his 62-year-old mother, Carolyn Click, near Tyler in East Texas.