Loud and Clear from Texas Death Row
By: Clinton Lee Young
Date: Aug 16, 2015
Title: Daniel Lopez & the Death Penalty
Daniel Lopez, no matter how you cut it, committed suicide on Aug. 12th 2015. He canceled his appeal. Not because he was guilty, as that he was not. He just knew that no matter what, it would be a prolonged struggle. He expressed that his loved ones were drifting away as they could not handle it. I guess he just felt it better for all. If anything funny can be brought from it. There was a scene during Daniel’s legal proceedings that seems straigt out of Hollywood. His lawyers knew that he was not guilty of capital murder, which is required to get death penalty.
See, he was running from the police. A cop jumped in front of the SUV he was driving, he swerved away from the cop, but the font corner clipped the officer. He died from the injuries. Now I do not think there is anything in police procedure that says to jump in front of a speeding vehicle. The cop simply was not thinking and reacted on instinct. Daniel was not wanted on any violent crime. It was a traffic stop that went wrong and he took off. Not surprisingly, the proper angles to show what happened during the chase were not available. As the police car cameras that would have seen that angle were ‘supposedly’ not recording. I guess it is better to say an officer was murdered, than that he made an ill-fated error. Nonetheless, Daniel was innocent of capital murder and guilty of involuntary manslaughter which only carries UP to 20 years. I will get away from this part and opinions as it will just get me in trouble.
Back to the funny kind of part which really shows the insanity of it all.
Daniel had a court hearing to cancel his appeals. There he is in court, his lawyers besides him. He was not fighting the state. He was fighting his lawyers. He wanted to cancel his appeals. The lawyers did not want him to. There they are standing before the judge, and the judge asked Daniel what he wanted. Daniel said,” I want to cancel my appeals man!” His lawyers said, “Your honor, he should not be allowed to cancel his appeals. He is not even guilty of capital murder. “The judge: “Mr. Lopez did you do it, did you intentionally kill the officer?” Daniel responded, “Well, no! I didn’t mean to do it, he jumped in front of me. I tried to swerve, but it was too late.”
Now it went on. He told me that the judge said he couldn’t cancel the appeals if he was not guilty. Though I moved to another Pod so I never found out how he managed to get his appeals dropped. It is a head shaking kind of funny. An “I thought I had seen/heard it all” kind of humor. He was trying to die. He had no reason to lie. He said all along, since he got down here, the same story. He was just tired of the bullshit. Being that it was a cop case he knew they would drag the fight out and would not be willing to accept anything less than death.
The fact that almost every person that kills a cop, has prosecutors seeking death shows that all are not equal in this country. As there are people that killed two or three gang members or drug users and they were given life. If all lives are equel, then all punishment should be equally applied. It is another reason why the death penalty system is flawed and unjust.
Then when he was being executed some bikers reeved their engines so loud that it drowned out his final words. When I heard about that on the radio…yeah I think this is one of those extremely rare times that I will think it best to keep my words to myself. Yeah it’s best. I was not friends with Daniel. We had been on the same pod from time to time. Communicated here and there. I can honestly say he was sincere in his desire to go!
So few states use it, so few areas of Texas use it. There are only very few countries out of the (I Think) 206 counties in Texas that use it. It is a political tool that is easily misused. People are aware of how pointless and costly it is. It does not deter crime, but for that person dying. People who use that position; they are dumb. There are like 30,000+ people locked up on Texas for murder! There are thousands of murders a year in Texas alone. Hell the major cities top out over 200 every year (that is Houston, Dallas, and San Antonio on average). There are, I think, over 500 people serving life without parole since it passed a few years back. there are only like 230 on death row, for the exact same type of crimes. Not one of those 500+ have killed anyone in prison. Before life without parole was put in place, a person could get life with parole in 40 years. Well CHANGE for parole in 40 years. There are thousands serving that sentence or the one before that from when it was 35 years. Has any of them killed anyone in prison.? NO & NO!
Majority of all murders in prison are committed by people serving under 50 years for a non-murder case. Ah, there was a guy several years back that was serving life for rape/murder. He was just serving life for rape. Though he raped and killed a female clerk, then he killed himself. One caser out of thousands. It shows that people can get a sentence other than death. It is almost September an no county in Texas has send anyone new to death row. That is historical. A few countries tried, but juries voted for life. It wasn’t because they think death row is so hard because we do not have TV. It was because of all the exposure to innocent people being executed, prosecutors hiding evidence, and chaotic courts. People are losing faith in the system. If you highlight the flaws in the system then people lose faith. The powers that be, they know their system is on the way out. As a result their are in a rush to kill as many as they can. Shat happens when you rush though? You make mistakes. Mistakes get exposed and the system falls apart even more. Money wasted, pain dragged on, and chaos reigns.
Back to Daniel. Some here, for some stupid reason get upset when a person cancels their appeal. It’s that person’s life. The gurney only has room for one. It was his choice. Not one I would do for myself. It was his fate to govern.
Alrighty then. I will have another one posted soon, hopefully.
Until next time.
Take care & keep on keepin’ on
Veni, Vidi, Vici. www.saveaninnoncentlife.com
I remain.
In solidarity,
Clinton Young #999447
Polunsky Unit
3872 FM 350 South
Livingston, TX 77351
USA