Texas executes man despite contested evidence
What happened?
Texas executed Ivan Cantu on Wednesday, rejecting calls for a rehearing amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence. Cantu, 50, maintained he was innocent in the 2000 murder of his cousin James Mosqueda and Mosqueda's fiancée, Amy Kitchen.
Who said what?
After multiple courts "comprehensively" reviewed his conviction, "Cantu has finally met with justice," said Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis. "I want you to know that I never killed James and Amy," Cantu said right before his execution. And this won't "bring you closure."
The commentary
Wherever "you stand on capital punishment, it is a great miscarriage of justice when we put to death a potentially innocent person," Texas Conservatives Concerned About the Death Penalty said to The Texas Tribune. Jeff Calhoun, one of three Cantu jurors who petitioned for a new trial after learning a key witness lied to them, told the Tribune he was "simply asking that this be looked at a little deeper before the unripened fruit is taken off the tree."
What next?
Idaho botched its first execution in 12 years on Wednesday. At least six more U.S. executions are scheduled this year.
