Wednesday evening, the state of Texas executed Ivan Abner Cantu, a 50-year-old Dallas native who maintained his innocence and garnered support from celebrities asking for his life to be spared, the Washington Post reported. Cantu’s execution — the first one carried out in Texas this year — comes more than two decades after he was convicted in a fatal shooting in 2000.
Cantu’s case drew the attention of celebrities Kim Kardashian and Martin Sheen, as well as U.S. Reps. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), all of whom supported Cantu. His advocates have long pleaded for Cantu to have another day in court — claiming that prosecutorial and defense misconduct, the discovery of physical evidence and a witness’s admission to lying during the trial should have warranted a pause to the execution. “I can’t say for sure that he’s innocent; but I can’t say for sure that he’s guilty,” Abraham Bonowitz, executive director of the anti-capital punishment organization Death Penalty Action, said during an online vigil Wednesday for Cantu. “There’s just too much doubt.”