The execution was the 528th in Texas since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, the most of any state.
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Daniel Lopez received a lethal injection at the Texas death chamber in Huntsville and was pronounced dead at 6.31pm local time on Wednesday.
Lopez was convicted of lethally striking Corpus Christi Police Lieutenant Stuart Alexander, 47, at high speed with a sports utility vehicle as he was fleeing from police.
Lt. Start Alexander was placing stop sticks at a highway exit when Lopez swerved toward the ramp.
“Attorneys representing Lopez refused to accept his intentions, questioning federal court findings that Lopez was mentally competent to volunteer for execution”, the AP reported. “I just feel I need to get over with it”.
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. During his sentencing hearing, Lopez said he wanted to die and that he never meant to kill the officer, reports CBS affiliate KHOU. “It was always about Daniel Lopez, and it’s still about Daniel Lopez”, Skurka said Tuesday. Even when he finally was cornered by police cars, Lopez tried ramming his SUV to escape and didn’t stop until he was shot.
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.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence on direct appeal on October 31, 2012. Officers found cocaine and a small scale in his SUV. He had also been arrested in the past for assault.
Lopez would be the 10th person this year to be executed in Texas, which has accounted for half of all executions nationwide in 2015.
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At least seven other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months.
