Ivan Cantu, who claimed for more than 20 years that he was sentenced to death based on false statements and unfounded evidence, was put to death by lethal injection last night in the death chamber of the prison in Huntsville, Texas. And Cantu reiterated several times in his final words that he was innocent of the accusation that he killed his cousin and his girlfriend in November 2000 for drug trafficking purposes.
Several celebrities also took part in the attempts to save the life of the death row condemned 50-year-old, including Kim Kardashian and actor Martin Sheen, as well as Democratic representative Joaquín Castro and his brother Julian, a former secretary in the Obama administration. Even three members of the jury that convicted Cantu had asked that his execution be postponed because they now had doubts about his guilt in light of the new evidence.
The mobilization was unsuccessful: last Monday, the Texas Pardon Board unanimously rejected the request to commute Cantu's death sentence and also the request to postpone the execution. The next day, two different Texas courts also rejected requests to stay the execution. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals called the new evidence that cast doubt on the death sentence “not credible.” The convicted man then decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court of the United States, believing that he had no chance of success. Although his attorney, Gena Bunn, reiterated that the new evidence “calls into question the integrity of the process being conducted and raises the possibility that the state of Texas will send an innocent man to his death.”