NASHVILLE, TN - An inmate scheduled to be executed in August says he wants to be put to death after a court ruling gave him the right to reject the help of attorneys trying to spare his life. Stephen Hugueley already was serving time for killing his mother when he fatally stabbed prison counselor Delbert Steed at the Hardeman County Correctional Complex in 2002 and was sentenced to death.

"My intent was to kill him, get the death penalty and be executed," Hugueley said.
Besides those two deaths, Hugueley admits killing a prison inmate and trying to kill another inmate. Hugueley, 38, says all the attacks were premeditated and that he is likely to kill again if he isn't executed.

"It may be one year, five years or 10 years, but sooner or later, somebody will do something to set me off," he told The Tennessean during an interview earlier this month at Brushy Mountain Correctional Complex in East Tennessee.

Although Hugueley hasn't exhausted all his appeals, a Tennessee Supreme Court opinion released this month found that the Post-Conviction Defender's office can't continue to fight executions in state courts without inmates' consent. The office continues to try to persuade him to resume his appeals so the Aug. 15 execution will be stayed.

"Taxpayers should be outraged," Hugueley said of the effort by the state-funded public defenders.

Opponents say the Supreme Court ruling could result in the hasty executions of mentally ill prisoners. Hugueley says he isn't mentally ill, and his minister, Ron Mosby of Franklin, agrees.

"He's dead serious, and he's dead sane," Mosby said. "He thinks he's guilty and he ought to die. His philosophy is, he feels like he's right with God, he feels like he's forgiven, but he feels like he needs to pay the piper."

Hugueley said he killed his mother because she opposed his relationship with an older woman. He was 18 when he shot his mother four times and threw her body off a bridge in Dyer County in West Tennessee.

"She was sticking her nose in my love life," he said.

The inmate's family has urged him to be buried next to his mother after he is executed, but he refused.

"I killed her. Why would I want to be lying next to her forever?" Hugueley said.
Hugueley stabbed inmate James Shelton to death at the West Tennessee State Prison in 1991 and tried to kill another inmate in 1997. He said he stabbed Steed 36 times after telling prison officials he didn't want to work with the counselor.