Texas Plans to Execute Man Despite Questions of His Guilt

The State Texas plans to go forward with the state-sponsored execution of Ivan Cantu for the murder of his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée, James Mosqueda and Amy Kitchen. Cantu has long maintained his innocence and claims that his conviction more than 20 years ago was based on false testimony and questionable evidence. Prosecutors have said Cantu, 50, killed Mosqueda, who dealt illegal drugs, and Kitchen as he tried to steal cocaine, marijuana and cash from his cousin’s home. Convicted in 2001, Cantu has claimed a rival drug dealer killed his cousin over a dispute about money.

Cantu’s then-girlfriend, Amy Boettcher, was the prosecution’s main witness. Boettcher, who died in 2021, testified that Cantu told her he was going to kill Mosqueda and Kitchen and later took her back to the crime scene after the killings. Gena Bunn, Cantu's attorney, alleges Boettcher’s testimony was riddled with false statements, including about Cantu stealing Mosqueda’s Rolex watch and Cantu giving her an engagement ring he stole from Kitchen.

Another prosecution witness, Jeff Boettcher, Amy Boettcher’s brother, told authorities in 2022 his testimony implicating Cantu was false and he wasn’t a credible witness due to his drug abuse history.

Jeff Calhoun, the jury foreman in the 2001 trial, said the testimony from the Boettchers was the most compelling evidence supporting Cantu’s guilt. But decades later, Calhoun had decided that Cantu’s case should be reconsidered after he learned Jeff Boettcher had lied to him and the other jurors. Two other jurors, in addition to Calhoun, have also asked for Cantu to receive another trial.

Bunn said new witness statements also help confirm Cantu’s claim that a man who had supplied drugs to Mosqueda had threatened him two days before the killings. Bunn has credited an independent probe by Matt Duff, a private investigator, with uncovering much of the new evidence. Duff has chronicled his findings in a podcast called “Cousins By Blood.”

Additionally, a police officer who inspected Cantu’s apartment shortly after the murders signed a sworn affidavit in 2020 that she did not believe that a pair of bloody jeans with the victims’ DNA admitted into evidence were in the apartment when she went to check on him at the request of Cantu’s concerned mother. The jeans were too big for Cantu and tests did not find conclusive evidence of his DNA on the pants. All of this, Cantu’s legal team said, indicates that he was framed for the crime.

Bunn wrote in Cantu’s clemency application argued that the Collin County District Attorney’s office knowingly withheld this evidence, and suggested that Amy Boettcher was willing to give false evidence under oath to assist the state’s case. The clemency application stated that all the new evidence “impugns the integrity of the State’s case for guilt and raises the specter that the State of Texas could execute an innocent man.”

Yet, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday denied Cantu’s request to stay his execution, dismissing his petition on procedural grounds and without reviewing its merits. Cantu’s lawyer was expected to submit a final appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court. On Monday, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles voted 7-0 against commuting Cantu’s death sentence to a lesser penalty. Members also rejected granting a four-month reprieve.

Efforts to delay Cantu’s execution have received the support of faith leaders, celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and actor Martin Sheen, and U.S. Rep. Joaquin Castro, and his brother, former U.S. Housing Secretary Julian Castro. Three jurors from Cantu’s trial have also asked for an execution delay, saying they now have doubts about the case.

So far, calls to look at Cantu’s case again have gone unanswered. Advocates working on Cantu’s behalf collected over 150,000 signatures to demand Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis request to withdraw the execution date.

“There was not fairness at this trial. All we're asking is [to] delay the execution of Ivan Cantu long enough to be able to have a hearing and an inquiry into the new evidence that's been presented,” Sister Helen Prejean, serving as Cantu’s spiritual adviser, said in a press call earlier this month.

You can do your part today to save Ivan Cantu and encourage Texas to seek questions to the reasonable doubt that's been raised. A petition asks Texas Governor Greg Abbott and Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis to withdraw the execution date in light of new evidence just disclosed by the DA's own office and grant a stay of execution until all the new evidence can be reviewed. The petition, asking for 200,00 signatures, currently has 150,478 supporters.

Link to petition --->> Save Ivan Cantu Before the State of Texas Kills Him