Texas inmate facing execution for 2000 fatal shooting says new evidence points to his innocence

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HOUSTON, Feb 28, (AP): A Texas inmate who has long said he’s innocent and claims that his conviction more than 20 years ago was based on false testimony and questionable evidence faces execution Wednesday for fatally shooting two people, including his cousin.

Ivan Cantu was condemned for the killing of his cousin, James Mosqueda, 27, and his cousin’s girlfriend, Amy Kitchen, 22, during a November 2000 robbery at their north Dallas home. His execution by lethal injection is set to take place at the state penitentiary in Huntsville.
Prosecutors have said Cantu, 50, killed Mosqueda, who dealt illegal drugs, and Kitchen as he tried to steal cocaine, marijuana and cash from his cousin’s home. Convicted in 2001, Cantu has claimed a rival drug dealer killed his cousin over a dispute about money.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday denied Cantu’s request to stay his execution, dismissing his petition on procedural grounds and without reviewing its merits. Cantu’s lawyer was expected to submit a final appeal with the US Supreme Court. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 7-0 against commuting Cantu’s death sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also rejected granting a four-month reprieve.
Efforts to delay Cantu’s execution have received the support of faith leaders, celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and actor Martin Sheen, and US Rep Joaquin Castro, and his brother, former US Housing Secretary Julian Castro.
Three jurors from Cantu’s trial have also asked for an execution delay, saying they now have doubts about the case.
Cantu’s scheduled execution is one of two set to be carried out in the U.S. on Wednesday. In Idaho, Thomas Eugene Creech is set to receive a lethal injection for killing a fellow prisoner with a battery-filled sock in 1981.
Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis, whose office convicted Cantu, said evidence presented at trial proved Cantu’s guilt.
“I remain fully convinced that Ivan Cantu brutally murdered two innocent victims in 2000,” Willis said in a statement.
But Gena Bunn, Cantu’s attorney, wrote in Cantu’s clemency application that new evidence “impugns the integrity of the State’s case for guilt and raises the specter that the State of Texas could execute an innocent man.”

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