[Deathpenalty] death penalty news----TEXAS

[Rick Halperin]

Aug. 12



TEXAS----execution//volunteer

Texas executes man who struck and killed police lieutenant with SUV during 2009 
chase


Texas inmate Daniel Lee Lopez, 27, got his wish Wednesday when he was executed 
for striking and killing a police lieutenant with an SUV during a chase more 
than 6 years ago.

The lethal injection was carried out after the U.S. Supreme Court rejected 
appeals from his attorneys, who disregarded Lopez's desire to die and disagreed 
with lower court rulings that found Lopez was competent to make that decision.

"I hope this execution helps my family and also the victim's family," said 
Lopez, who spoke quietly and quickly. "This was never meant to be, sure beyond 
my power. I can only walk the path before me and make the best of it. I'm sorry 
for putting you all through this. I am sorry. I love you. I am ready. May we 
all go to heaven."

As the drugs took effect, he took 2 deep breaths, then 2 shallower breaths. 
Then all movement stopped.

The roar of revving motorcycles on the street outside the Huntsville prison, 
from a group of bikers supporting police, could be heard as Lopez spoke, along 
with rumbles of intermittent thunder.

He was pronounced dead at 6:31 p.m. CDT - 15 minutes after the lethal dose 
began.

Lopez's "obvious and severe mental illness" was responsible for him wanting to 
use the legal system for suicide, illustrating his "well-documented history of 
irrational behavior and suicidal tendencies," attorney David Dow, who 
represented Lopez, had told the high court. Dow also argued the March 2009 
crime was not a capital murder because Lopez didn't intend to kill Corpus 
Christi Lt. Stuart Alexander.

The officer's widow, Vicky Alexander, and four friends who were witnesses with 
her prayed in the chamber before a physician pronounced Lopez dead. At the same 
time, some people selected by Lopez as witnesses sang "Amazing Grace" from an 
adjacent room.

"This has nothing to do with revenge," Vicky Alexander said afterward, and 
after hugging more than a dozen police officers who stood at attention as she 
departed the prison. "This has to do with the law. And when you break the law, 
there's punishment for what you do. He broke the ultimate law, and he had to 
pay the ultimate price, as my husband did."

She said as a nurse of 25 years, it was "totally against my grain to see 
something like this."

"But it's justice for my husband. It is the law. It's part of the system he 
believed in and worked for, and society has to have rules to maintain peace."

Stuart 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 the SUV Lopez was fleeing 
in.

Lopez, who also wrote letters to a federal judge and pleaded for his execution 
to move forward, said last week from death row that a Supreme Court reprieve 
would be "disappointing."

"I've accepted my fate," he said. "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.

"He had no moral scruples, no nothing. It was always about Daniel Lopez, and 
it's still about Daniel Lopez," Skurka said Tuesday. "He's a bad, bad guy."

Lopez was properly examined by a psychologist, testified at a federal court 
hearing about his desire to drop appeals and was found to have no mental 
defects, state attorneys said in opposing delays to the punishment.

Deputies found a dozen packets of cocaine and a small scale in a false 
compartment in the console of the SUV.

Records showed Lopez was on probation at the time after pleading guilty to 
indecency with a child in Galveston County and was a registered sex offender. 
He had other arrests for assault.

Testimony at his trial showed he had at least 5 children by 3 women, and a 6th 
was born while he was jailed for Alexander's death. Court records show Lopez 
had sex with girls as young as 14 and had a history of assaults and other 
trouble while in school, where he was a 10th-grade dropout.

Lopez becomes the 10 condemned inmate to be put ot death this year in Texas and 
the 528th overall since Texas resumed capital punishment on December 7, 1982.

Lopez becomes the 19th condemned inmate to be put to death this year in the USA 
and the 1413th overall since the nation resumed executions on January 17, 1977.

(sources: Associated press & Rick Halperin)

*******************

Executions under Greg Abbott, Jan. 21, 2015-present----10 Executions in Texas: 
Dec. 7, 1982----present-----528

Abbott#--------scheduled execution date-----name------------Tx. #

11---------August 26----------------Bernardo Tercero------529

12---------September 29-------------Perry Williams--------530

13---------October 6----------------Juan Garcia-----------531

14---------October 14---------------Licho Escamilla-------532

15---------October 28---------------Christopher Wilkins---533

16---------November 3---------------Julius Murphy---------534

17---------January 20 (2016)-----Richard Masterson--------535

(sources: TDCJ & Rick Halperin)