In a matter of days, the United States could observe its 1,000th execution since the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty nearly three decades ago. The case of Texas teenager Ruben Cantu invites a sober reflection.
Cantu was 17 and a San Antonio gang member when he was fingered for robbing and shooting two men in 1984. But 12 years after Cantu's execution, the Houston Chronicle has so meticulously unraveled the case against him that even the prosecutor is having second thoughts. The jury forewoman tells the Chronicle: "The bottom line is, an innocent person was put to death. . . . We all have our finger in that."
Cantu was convicted solely on the testimony of one man, the one who survived the shooting. Yet that man, who was an illegal alien, says police pressured him to identify Cantu. He was shown Cantu's photo three separate times. "They told me they were certain it was him, and that's why I testified," he told the Chronicle. "That was bad to blame someone that was not there."
The Cantu conviction is a cautionary tale about eyewitness testimony and certainly a stain on the San Antonio police who were apparently trying to settle an unrelated score with the defendant. Yet because this conviction was a capital offense, it has to be viewed through a more powerful lens.
http://www.sptimes.com/2005/11/23/Opinion/The_death_penalty_s_f.shtml