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A Texas court has once again denied an appeal by a man scheduled to be executed Wednesday.
The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday rejected Ivan Cantu's latest appeal. That court filing offered alleged evidence of further false statements from witnesses in his 2001 trial and claims that his court-appointed attorneys were ineffective.
(Document via txcourts.gov)
Cantu was convicted of murdering his cousin and his cousin's fiancée in a north Dallas suburb in 2000 but has maintained his innocence ever since.
In recent years, a private investigator who created a true crime podcast unearthed proof that a key witness in Cantu's trial had lied in her testimony. Later, another key witness came forward to admit he'd also lied.
Those revelations — and other developments that cast doubt on the forensic evidence used to convict Cantu — have led former jurors in the case to come forward expressing concerns. Jeff Calhoun, the former jury foreman in the trial, wrote an opinion piece in the Austin American-Statesman this week titled "I helped put Ivan Cantu on death row. Now I feel like I was fooled.“
Cantu had two prior execution dates, the most recent of which was April 26, 2023. But a district judge ordered his execution date be withdrawn, saying “additional proceedings are necessary” in his case.
But, four months later, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals rejected Cantu's appeal without considering the merits of the new evidence and revelations because of procedural reasons tied to the first appeal in his case, filed by his previous, court-appointed appellate attorney who had asked to be removed from Cantu's case citing her age and ability to adequately represent him. But a judge forced her to remain on the case.
In an interview with Houston Public Media from death row on Feb. 14, Cantu had an analogy for the situation.
"You've caught the ball, but you're out of bounds," he said.
