Texas Executes 10th Inmate This Year

Wednesday night, Texas officials executed Daniel Lee Lopez by lethal injection for the 2009 vehicular homicide of a Corpus Christi police lieutenant.

27-year-old Lopez was convicted of the March 2009 murder of Lt. Stuart Alexander after he struck Lt. Alexander with his SUV while fleeing from other officers.  Lt. Alexander was in a field just having laid out a spike strip to stop Lopez.

Lopez's attorneys defied his wishes in filing an appeal to halt the execution.  Lopez had declined to appeal his execution in order to speed up the process.  Lopez's attorneys argued that Lopez was mentally ill and that was leading to his wish to die.  Lower courts ruled Lopez competent to make the decision to end the appeals process, and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to halt the execution.

Lopez's execution marks the 10th execution in Texas this year, more than any other state in the country.

via ABC News