Ivan Cantu, the Latino sentenced to death who will be executed this Wednesday in Texas and who claims to be innocent

“I am innocent”. That’s the phrase Ivan Cantu has repeated over and over during the 22 years he’s been on death row in Texas, United States.

The Mexican-born man is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection this Wednesday at Huntsville State Penitentiary.

In a case that sparked a heated debate about justice and the death penalty in the United States, Cantu was convicted of the murders of his cousin, James Mosqueda, 27, and his girlfriend, Amy Kitchen, 22, in Dallas. In the year 2000.

Human rights organizations denounced irregularities in the legal process and demanded that the convictions be reversed so that their procedural situation could be fully reviewed.

“The evidence was manipulated,” said Silvia Cantu, the inmate’s mother, who has led a public campaign in her son’s defense.

“Stop the execution of my son”He pleaded that the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals this week rejected a last-ditch legal appeal trying to stop his execution.

“This isn’t right, you know it isn’t right,” Mother declared.

The appeal alleged new evidence would prove that false witness statements were presented at trial and that court-appointed attorneys were ineffective in defending them.

According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Ivan Cantu, son of Mexican Abner Cantu, was born in 1973 in Dallas, Texas.

He was 27 when he was charged with the double murder and was imprisoned at 28.

Amy Boettcher, his girlfriend at the time, testified against him.

They lived together in an apartment near the house of their cousin James Mosqueda.

Boettcher was a key witness for the prosecution. The ex-girlfriend, who died in 2021, testified that Cantu told her he was going to commit a crime and then drove her to the scene.

Mosqueda and Kitchen were murdered in the bedroom of their home on November 4, 2000, with multiple gunshot wounds on their bodies.

The organization Amnesty International said in a statement that Doubts remain about Cantu’s “adequacy of his legal representation at trial” and the testimony of a key witness. State and physical evidence that corroborates his testimony.

According to the Death Penalty Information Center, an American non-governmental organization, “the prosecution relied heavily on the testimony of Amy Boettcher” during the trial.

Cantu’s attorney, Gena Bunn, and private investigator, Matt Duff, maintain that the defense attorney who previously represented Cantu made mistakes, as he did not request DNA or ballistics tests, nor did he call any witnesses.

In the closing arguments of the trial, one of the lawyers representing Cantu admitted his client’s guilt.

Cantu admitted that he killed Mosqueda to “cheat” a drug deal and that Kitchen was killed because she was at the scene of the crime.

Cantu refused to make this confession, asked to interrupt the trial and requested to represent himself, but his request was denied.

Prosecutors indicated at the time that Cantu killed James Mosqueda – an illegal drug trafficker – and his girlfriend, While he was trying to steal cocaine, marijuana and cash from his cousin’s house.

Sentenced to death in 2001, Cantu insisted that a rival drug trafficker killed his cousin over a money dispute.

Efforts to delay Cantu’s implementation have received support from religious and political leaders, as well as celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and actor Martin Sheen.

Three judges in Cantu’s trial also asked for a delay in execution, saying they now have doubts about the case.

Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis, whose office charged Cantu, said evidence presented at trial proved the inmate’s guilt.

“I am absolutely convinced that Ivan Cantu brutally murdered two innocent victims in 2000”Willis said in a statement.

This week, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 7-0 against commuting Cantu’s death sentence to a lesser one. Members also rejected a four-month stay on executions, which were postponed in 2012 and 2023.

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