The life of Ivan Cantu, a man who staunchly maintained his innocence for over two decades, came to a tragic end last night. Having consistently argued that his death sentence was based on fabricated testimonies and unverifiable evidence, Cantu was put to his death through lethal injection in the death chamber of a Huntsville, Texas prison. In his final moments, Cantu reiterated several times that he was not guilty of the heinous crimes he was accused of – the murder of his cousin and his girlfriend in November 2000, crimes allegedly related to illicit drug trafficking.
Notably, Cantu’s insistence on his innocence resonated with many, even prompting several high-profile personalities to join in the efforts to spare his life. Among the individuals advocating for the 50-year-old convict were renowned celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Martin Sheen. These influential figures were joined by political elites such as Democratic deputy Joaquín Castro and his brother Julian Castro, who served in the Obama administration. Moreover, three members of the jury who initially convicted Cantu expressed their doubts about his guilt in light of new evidence and requested for his execution to be postponed.
Despite the vocal opposition and the emergence of potentially exonerating evidence, the efforts to save Cantu proved futile. The Texas pardon commission, in a unanimous decision, dismissed both the appeal to commute Cantu’s death sentence and the request to delay his execution last Monday. In a similar vein, two separate Texas courts declined requests to halt Cantu’s execution the following day. The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals went as far as to dismiss the new evidence that cast doubt on the death sentence as “not credible.” Resigned to his fate, Cantu decided against appealing to the United States Supreme Court, convinced that it would be of no avail. His lawyer, Gena Bunn, however, remained adamant in her belief that the new evidence “undermines the integrity of the trial and raises the possibility that the state of Texas could be sending an innocent man to his death.”
