Did Texas execute an innocent man?

Nov. 19, 2005, 4:19PM
Did Texas execute an innocent man?
By LISE OLSEN
© 2005 Houston Chronicle

FROM: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3471520.html
Texas executed its fifth teenage offender at 22 minutes after midnight on Aug. 24, 1993, after his last request for bubble gum had been refused and his final claim of innocence had been forever silenced.

Ruben Cantu, 17 at the time of his crime, had no previous convictions, but a San Antonio prosecutor had branded him a violent thief, gang member and murderer who ruthlessly shot one victim nine times with a rifle before emptying at least nine more rounds into the only eyewitness — a man who barely survived to testify.

Four days after a Bexar County jury delivered its verdict, Cantu wrote this letter to the residents of San Antonio: "My name is Ruben M. Cantu and I am only 18 years old. I got to the 9th grade and I have been framed in a capital murder case."

A dozen years after his execution, a Houston Chronicle investigation suggests that Cantu, a former special-ed student who grew up in a tough neighborhood on the south side of San Antonio, was likely telling the truth.

MORE: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3471520.html

I swear those Texas courts get off on the thought of putting people to death.

This capital-punishment mania in Texas has probably killed many innocent people.

Probably most of them on W's watch as Governor.

Anybody who REALLY thinks our system executes ONLY the guilty people is really clueless. Maybe they should be put on death row to think about it for awhile.

It's a sad story and it does look like an innocent man was murdered by the State, which means murdered by us, the citizens of Texas.

However, I can say with a clean conscience I have tried to stop capital punishment, and oppose it in spite of the considerable grief I catch in a state where everyone owns a half dozen guns and think killing bad guys is always the deal.

killin' in the name of ...