By Krista M. Torralva
Corpus Christi Caller-Times
CORPUS CHRISTI — A man awaiting execution for killing a Corpus Christi police officer wants his death to save lives.
Daniel Lee Lopez, 27, set out to persuade the state to allow death row inmates the ability to donate their organs.
Lopez said he sent handwritten letters to 36 entities including the governor’s office and several congressmen, trying to convince the state to allow death row inmates the option of being organ donors post-execution.
“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 Caller-Times. “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.”
Lopez was convicted in 2010 of killing Lt. Stuart Alexander by striking him with his SUV during a March 11, 2009 chase. Alexander was laying spike strips on the side of the highway.
Lopez has said the killing was not intentional but he feels he deserves to pay with his life.
Non-death row Texas inmates are allowed to become organ donors and prisons facilitate secure travel to hospitals for the operations, Clark said.
The problem with Lopez’ request is Texas injects a single dose of pentobarbital which poisons the organs, said Jason Clark, spokesman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
“So the short answer is those organs are not viable after execution,” Clark said.
There also have been no discussions on the topic in the justice system or the Legislature, which ended its regular session this week, about changing the way executions are conducted to accommodate organ transplants, Clark said.
Some organs could be used post-execution such as a kidney or liver, but not the heart, Dr. Brooks Edwards told the Associated Press. Edwards is a transplant cardiologist and director of the Mayo Clinic Transplant Center in Rochester, Minn.
Lopez’s effort looks like an uphill battle, especially with his limited time. Lopez is scheduled to be executed Aug. 12. He fought his attorneys to waive his appeals and expedite his execution.
More than 120,000 people in the U.S. are waiting for an organ and an estimated 21 die daily, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. One organ donor can save about eight people, the website states. In Texas, more than 11,000 people are in need, according to Southwest Transplant Alliance.
Texas’ death row had 258 men and seven women as of May 13, according to the TDCJ website. Thirty-five inmates were executed in 2014 nation wide, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.
Death row inmates before Lopez have made the same push and failed.
Jonathan Nobles was executed in 1998 after a similar effort. Oregon death row inmate Christian Longo launched a campaign called G.A.V.E., created a website and had a letter published in The New York Times. He lives on death row while Oregon has a moratorium on executions.