Texas is preparing to execute Ivan Cantu, a death row inmate who claims not to have committed the murders for which he will be executed this Wednesday night, more than 20 years after his conviction.
Cantu is being left with few legal options.
On Monday, the state Board of Pardons and Paroles of Texas denied the clemency request filed by Cantu's defense.
On Tuesday, both the state's highest criminal court and the federal Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denied his last-minute motions asking for a stay of execution.
Those legal challenges presented alleged evidence of false witness statements at his 2001 trial and alleged the ineffectiveness of court-appointed attorneys.
Cantu's defense has confirmed to Noticias Telemundo that she went to the Supreme Court and they are waiting for his response.
If the Supreme Court does not suspend it, Cantu is expected to be executed by lethal injection this Wednesday, February 28 at the Huntsville unit, starting at 6:00 p.m. (local time).
"From the first day [...] everything was there to investigate the case and prove my innocence. But when I explained it, they didn't believe me," Cantu lamented days ago in an interview with Noticias Telemundo on the death row of the Allan prison. B. Polunsky, in West Livingston (Texas), 80 miles north of Houston.
[The Texas Board of Pardons denies Ivan Cantu's clemency petition to prevent his execution on February 28]
Cantu, a Latino born in Dallas 50 years ago to a Mexican father, was found guilty by a jury of the murder of his cousin, James Mosqueda, 27;
and Amy Kitchen, Mosqueda's fiancee, 22 years old.
Cantu was 28 years old at the time.
Both were shot to death in the bedroom of his home in north Dallas on Nov. 3, 2000, the sentencing determined.
"It's just days before they want to put me on a stretcher [to receive the lethal injection] for a crime I didn't commit. We're doing everything we can to present the information to the courts, but it's like they don't care," Cantu said during the interview.
In the years since his conviction, Cantu's attorney, Gena Bunn (who has represented him pro bono for 15 years), private investigators and an independent podcast producer, Matt Duff, say they have found new evidence that they believe discredits Cantu. the main witness of the Prosecutor's Office (Amy Boettcher, Cantu's ex-fiancée) and cast, they say, doubts on his guilt.
Cantu's case has garnered national attention: more than 145,000 people have signed an online petition calling for a stay of his execution, and celebrities such as Kim Kardashian, Martin Sheen and Jane Fonda, and organizations such as Amnesty International have also advocated for a review. His sentence.
"There are no circumstances that justify rushing his execution. There are serious doubts about Ivan Cantu's guilt and the State of Texas has a moral and ethical responsibility to ensure that his claims of innocence are thoroughly investigated. I urge the County District Attorney of Collin, Willis, to honor the spirit of the law and grant Cantu a stay of execution," declared Joaquín Castro, Democratic representative from Texas, in a statement sent to Noticias Telemundo.
[Ivan Cantu's time is running out in Texas on death row: “I don't want to die,” he says, “for a crime I didn't commit”]
In April 2023, a last-minute appeal citing testimony questioned by the defense led Collin County District Judge Benjamin Smith to pause the execution with only seven days left until the execution.
But the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected a request for an evidentiary hearing four months later and a new date was set for the execution (this February 28).
"There are doubts about his legal representation at trial, the testimony of the state's main witness, and the evidence. We have seen that several people on the jury have come out saying that they also have doubts about whether he is really guilty or not in the case," Mary Kapron, Amnesty International researcher in the United States, stated in an interview with Noticias Telemundo.
Due to recent court decisions, Cantu's fate depends on a decision by the Supreme Court or whether the governor, Republican Greg Abbott, decides at the last minute to halt the execution.
"I think Cantu has evidence that should be seen and heard in court before he is executed. His first lawyers did not call a single witness at his trial. And since he was convicted, there is a lot of new evidence that should be processed," he said. In an interview with Noticias Telemundo, Abraham J. Bonowitz, director of Death Penalty Action, a non-profit organization that works to stop and abolish the death penalty in the United States.
[A Texas judge freezes the execution of Ivan Cantu after new evidence is presented]
Noticias Telemundo contacted the Collin County Prosecutor's Office about the case and a spokesperson responded via email that their policy is "not to comment on any criminal case pending in court."
The Dallas Police Department also did not comment and the Pardon Board did not respond, and it was later learned that it denied the clemency request.
The families of James Mosqueda and Amy Kitchen declined to comment on the case at the request of Noticias Telemundo, but on a Facebook page the Kitchen family said on February 2: "Let's hope that there is finally justice for Amy and James and that execution takes place."
"The courts do not want to examine the evidence that was found in this case. And another problem is that this evidence was discovered recently. It seems that there is more interest in closing the case than in the truth," Bonowitz said.
Texas is the state where the most executions are carried out: 586 since 1976. In 2023, eight inmates were executed.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, since 1973 at least 196 people accused and sentenced to death have been exonerated in the United States, 16 of them in Texas.
If Cantu's execution goes ahead, it would be the first this year in the state.