2024-02-29 02:41:56
Image copyrightCourtesy of Matt Duff
Caption,
Iván Cantú assured even in his last words that he was innocent.
Article information
- Author, Editorial
- Scroll, BBC News World
- February 28, 2024
Updated February 29, 2024
“I’m innocent”. That is the phrase that Iván Cantú repeated over and over once more during the 22 years that he remained on death row in Texas, United States.
The execution of this man of Mexican origin by lethal injection took place this Wednesday at 6:47 p.m. local time (00:47 GMT on Thursday) at the Huntsville state penitentiary.
In a case that generated an intense debate regarding justice and the death penalty in the United States, Cantú was convicted of the murder of his cousin James Mosqueda, 27, and his girlfriend, Amy Kitchen, 22, that occurred in Dallas in 2000.
Cantú used his final statement before being executed to say that he did not kill Amy and James, adding that he did not believe his execution would bring peace or closure to the families.
Cantú addressed the Mosqueda and Kitchen families, said Amanda Hernández, spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
“I want you to know that I never killed James and Amy,” Cantú said. “I want everyone to know that I don’t think this situation here will bring you closure,” he added.
“If I had known who did it, they would have been the first to know any information I had.”
Human rights organizations denounced irregularities in the legal process and demanded that the conviction be annulled so that a complete review of their procedural situation might be carried out.
“The evidence was manipulated,” said Sylvia Cantú, the inmate’s mother, who led a public campaign in defense of her son.
“Stop the execution of my son,” he pleaded, following the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this week rejected the last legal appeal that attempted to stop his execution.
“This is not right, you know it is not right,” the mother declared before the execution.
The appeal offered alleged new evidence that would prove that false witness statements were presented at trial and that court-appointed attorneys were ineffective in defending him.
The key witness
image copyrightTexas Department of Criminal Justice
Caption,
Human rights organizations expressed doubts regarding the judicial process by which Cantú was convicted.
Iván Cantú, son of Mexican Abner Cantú, was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1973, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.
He was 27 years old when he was accused of the double homicide and was imprisoned at 28.
His girlfriend at the time, Amy Boettcher, testified once morest him.
They lived together in an apartment near their cousin James Mosqueda’s house.
Boettcher was the prosecution’s main witness. The ex-girlfriend, who died in 2021, testified that Cantú told her that she was going to commit the crime and then took her to her place.
Mosqueda and Kitchen were murdered in the bedroom of their home on November 4, 2000, and their bodies were found with multiple gunshot wounds.
The organization Amnesty International said in a statement that doubts persist regarding “the adequacy of her legal representation at trial” and regarding the testimony of the state’s key witness and the physical evidence that seemed to corroborate her testimony.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, an American non-governmental organization, during the trial “the prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of Amy Boettcher.”
Cantú’s attorney, Gena Bunn, and private investigator, Matt Duff, maintain that there were errors on the part of a defense attorney who previously represented Cantú, as he did not request DNA or ballistics tests, nor did he call any witnesses.
In the final argument of the trial, one of the lawyers representing Cantú admitted his client’s guilt.
Cantú supposedly admitted that he had killed Mosqueda for “swindling” him in a drug deal and that Kitchen was murdered because she was at the scene of the crime.
Cantú denied having made this confession, asked to interrupt the trial and requested to represent himself, but his request was denied.
image copyrightGetty Images
“I was trying to steal drugs”
Prosecutors indicated at the time that Cantú killed James Mosqueda – who trafficked illegal drugs – and his girlfriend when he tried to steal cocaine, marijuana and cash from his cousin’s house.
Sentenced to the death penalty in 2001, Cantú insisted from the beginning that a rival drug trafficker killed his cousin over a dispute over money.
Efforts to delay Cantú’s execution received support from religious and political leaders, as well as celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and actor Martin Sheen.
Three jurors in Cantú’s trial also asked for a delay in the execution, saying they now have doubts regarding the case.
A petition on MoveOn.org urging Texas Governor Greg Abbott to grant a stay of execution attracted regarding 150,000 signatures.
However, all these prayers were fruitless.
Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis, whose office charged Cantu, said the evidence presented at trial proved the inmate’s guilt.
“I remain fully convinced that Iván Cantú brutally murdered two innocent victims in 2000,” Willis said in a statement.
This week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 7-0 once morest commuting Cantú’s death sentence to a lesser sentence.
Members also refused to grant a four-month reprieve from the execution, which was already postponed in 2012 and 2023.
Capital punishment has been abolished in 23 US states, while the governors of six others (Arizona, California, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania and Tennessee) have suspended its use.
And remember that you can receive notifications. Download the latest version of our app and activate them so you don’t miss our best content.
1709206079
#Iván #Cantú #Latino #executed #Texas #defended #innocence #death
