HUNTSVILLE, Texas -- A convicted killer who volunteered for execution but in recent weeks changed his mind has been put to death in Texas. Thirty-year-old Danielle Simpson received lethal injection Wednesday evening for the abduction-slaying of an 84-year-old east Texas woman who was weighted down with a cinder block and thrown into a river. Simpson had won approval from a federal court that he was competent to decide to drop his appeals. Then Simpson he himself and allowed lawyers to try to save him. Attorneys contended he was mentally ill. He was condemned for the murder of Geraldine Davidson, a former school teacher and church organist abducted nearly 10 years ago during a burglary of her home in Palestine, about 100 miles southeast of Dallas.
