Texas Executes Cop Killer Who Sought Death Over Lawyer's Objection

Texas death row inmate Daniel Lee Lopez, who for years has affirmed his guilt for killing a Corpus Christi police lieutenant and petitioned courts to expedite his execution , was executed Wednesday night after the U.S. Supreme Court denied an appeal by his lawyer.

Lopez, 27, was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. after receiving a lethal injection at the state's death chamber in Huntsville, according to a spokesman from theTexas Department of Criminal Justice.

Convicted in 2010 for killing Corpus Christi Lt. Stuart Alexander during a high-speed chase, Lopez was bound for execution after the court on Wednesday afternoon denied an appeal by attorney David Dow, the prominent anti-death penalty defense attorney representing Lopez.

Lopez's "obvious and severe mental illness" led to his desire to use the legal system for suicide, illustrating his "well-documented history of irrational behavior and suicidal tendencies," Dow told the court. Dow argued the March 2009 crime wasn't eligible for the death penalty because Lopez didn't intend to kill the officer.

Courts had previously found Lopez competent to make the decision to waive his appeals and expedite his execution. 

"I've accepted my fate," Lopez told The Associated Press last week. "I'm just ready to move on."

"I'm ready. Ain't no point in staying in here any longer. I'm in a, in a box. So I'm ready, right," Lopez told the AP in 2011.

Lopez' five-year wait on death row  was roughly half the time a typical inmate waits before execution, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.

One of Lopez's final wishes was to donate his organs.

“I’ve sat here for five years thinking of all the mistakes I’ve done and how I could do my part and give back to others,” Lopez wrote in a letter to the Corpus Christi Caller-Times last week. “I’ve accidentally taken a man’s life and have thought on many occasions on how great it would be to give one or more back."

A spokesman for the TDCJ told the newspaper that Lopez's organs would not be viable after his execution because the single dose of pentobarbital used for lethal injection effectively poisons the organs.

Lopez, a father of at least six children by several different women, reportedly told the mother of one of his former girlfriends he was pushing for execution so that his children would be eligible for Social Security benefits until they turned 18.

Lopez would be the 10th person this year to be executed in Texas, which has accounted for half of all executions nationwide in 2015.

The Associated Press contributed reporting.

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