Ivan Cantu died this Wednesday, February 28 at 6:47 p.m. (local time) at the Huntsville State Penitentiary (70 miles north of Houston) by lethal injection, despite claiming to have evidence of his innocence, according to He told Noticias Telemundo.
His death was confirmed in a statement published on justice".
According to a statement from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Cantu's last words were: “I would like to address the Kitchen and Mosqueda families.
I want you to know that I never killed James and Amy.
And if he had, if he knew who did it, they would have been the first to know any information he had.
"I want you all to know that I don't think this situation here will give you closure [...] I want you all to know that I did not kill James and Amy."
Additionally, Cantu thanked his attorney Gene Bunn, his mother, Sylvia Cantu, and everyone who supported him in his final years.
"Everyone blessed me to be in this position and it was an honor to work with all of them, but I would like to especially thank Matt Duff for believing in me and digging deep and unraveling the case to show the world that I do not belong this stretcher, to keep up the fight and continue searching," he said in reference to Duff, who was one of the investigators in his case.
[The Texas Board of Pardons denies Ivan Cantu's clemency petition to prevent his execution on February 28]
Cantu concluded by quoting a Bible verse that says, "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also."
And then he said, "Save, I'm ready."
Cantu, a Latino born in Dallas 50 years ago to a Mexican father, was convicted of the death in Dallas in 2000 of his cousin, James Mosqueda, 27;
and Amy Kitchen, Mosqueda's fiancee, 22 years old.
Cantu was 28 years old at the time.
The Texas State Board of Pardons and Paroles on Monday denied his attorney's request for clemency.
Her motion to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to stay the execution was denied Tuesday.
In his appeal he presented alleged evidence of false witness statements at his 2001 trial, among other evidence.
The last resort for his lawyer, Gena Bunn (who has represented him pro bono for 15 years), was the Supreme Court, to which Cantu's team told Noticias Telemundo this Wednesday that she would go.
“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 B. Polunsky prison, in West Livingston (Texas), 80 miles north of Houston.
[Ivan Cantu is running out of time in Texas on death row: “I don't want to die,” he says, “for a crime I didn't commit”]
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 hastening his execution,” Joaquín Castro, Democratic representative from Texas, told Noticias Telemundo in a statement.
“There are serious doubts about his guilt, the State of Texas has a moral and ethical responsibility to ensure that his claims of innocence are thoroughly investigated.
“I urge Collin County District Attorney Willis to honor the spirit of the law and grant Cantu a stay of execution,” he said.
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.