Year
How to use the database
HANDS OFF CAIN’S 2015 REPORT
The worldwide situation (as of 30 June 2016)
EXECUTIONS IN 2014
EXECUTIONS IN 2015 (as of 30 June)
The most important facts of 2015 (and the first six months of 2016)
ADDRESS of Pope Francis
THE SMILING FACE OF THE MULLAHS
Reportage by Sergio D'Elia
ANALYSIS OF THE 2015 REPORT DATA AND OBJECTIVES OF HANDS OFF CAIN
Reportage by Marco Perduca
"THE ABOLITIONIST OF THE YEAR 2015” AWARD
Protocol of understanding between NTC and CNF
Dossier on death penalty and homosexuality
Final declaration of the Cairo workshop
Goals
Achievements
GENERAL MOTION OF THE FIFTH CONGRESS OF HOC
RESOLUTION OF THE KIGALI CONFERENCE
U.N. RESOLUTION 2014

U.N. RESOLUTION 2012
U.N. RESOLUTION 2010

REPORT ON THE 2ND ANNUAL EU FORUM ON THE DEATH PENALTY IN ZAMBIA

Videos

DECLARATION OF LIBREVILLE

Publications
Hands Off Cain Headquarters
U.N. RESOLUTION 2008

U.N. RESOLUTION 2007

Appeal To The United Nations
Board of Directors

LETHAL TRADE DOSSIER
2014 FREETOWN CONFERENCE Final Declaration
THE COTONOU DECLARATION 2014
DOSSIER IRAQ 2003

DOSSIER ON MORATORIUM
DOSSIER IRAQ 2012

DOSSIER USA 2011

NOBEL LAUREATES APPEAL
Bulletin Board
Sign up
Join appeal
Newsletter
Our Publications

USA - Ivan Cantu (TX)
USA - Ivan Cantu (TX)
USA - Texas. Ivan Cantu, 50, White, executed

February 28, 2024:

28/02/2024 - Texas. Ivan Cantu, 50, White, executed.
Ivan Abner Cantu maintained his innocence and garnered support from celebrities asking for his life to be spared.
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. Yet, his advocates 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.
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.
Despite mounting doubts about his guilt, Cantu was executed at 6:47 Central time on Wednesday in Huntsville by lethal injection, in a small room known as the death chamber, with its seafoam-green walls and gurney with restraints.
Cantu’s execution was most recently stayed in April. At that time, two of the jurors who convicted Cantu had submitted declarations with doubts about the case.
On Tuesday, both the Texas appeals court and a federal appeals court denied Cantu’s requests for a stay.
On Wednesday, Cantu’s attorney, Gena Bunn, said she would not submit a final appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court.
Cantu was convicted in 2001 of shooting and killing his cousin, 27-year-old James Mosqueda, and Mosqueda’s fiancée, 22-year-old Amy Kitchen, at their home on Nov. 4, 2000.
Prosecutors claim Cantu killed the pair while trying to steal drugs and cash from Mosqueda, who was a drug dealer, and Kitchen. Cantu has claimed that a rival drug dealer killed the two over money.
Amy Boettcher, Cantu’s girlfriend at the time, testified that he stole and later got rid of Mosqueda’s Rolex, but Cantu’s attorney said the watch was later found by Mosqueda’s family. (The watch was photographed by private investigator Matt Duff, who has since released a podcast about the case, “Cousins by Blood.”) Boettcher also told jurors that Cantu proposed to her the night of the killings with an engagement ring he stole from Kitchen, but Cantu’s attorney wrote in court filings that witnesses claim the couple had announced their engagement and showed off the ring a week before the killings.
Boettcher also testified that Cantu threw his bloodied clothes inside a trash can on the night of the killings. Yet, Cantu’s attorneys have long questioned that claim — saying in court records that a police officer who went to the apartment the next day had not seen the clothes, which were not discovered until several days later.
In 2009, testing on the clothing could not conclusively show that Cantu’s DNA was on them.
Jeff Boettcher, Amy’s brother, testified that Cantu had said he planned to kill Mosqueda. But Jeff Boettcher told a district attorney investigator in 2022 that he “lied” and, according to court documents, was not a credible witness because of his history of drug abuse.
Defense attorneys wrote that prosecutors “failed to disclose impeachment evidence that could have been used to impugn the credibility” of Amy Boettcher, who at the time attorneys said admitted to being a daily drug user. Attorneys also argue that her brother Jeff’s admission he lied on the stand means Cantu was denied due process.
Kardashian, who has taken to clemency work in recent years, pushed for Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) to issue a 30-day reprieve for Cantu.
“Urge him to use his power to allow time for new evidence in Ivan’s case to be evaluated, lest Texas execute a wrongfully convicted man,” she tweeted Wednesday to her 75 million followers.
Sheen and anti-capital-punishment activist Sister Helen Prejean appeared on CNN to make their case for saving Cantu.
In addition to high profile supporters, three jurors who convicted the man had advocated for a stay of execution in Cantu’s case.
Jeff Calhoun, foreman of the jury that convicted Cantu in 2001, told the Texas Tribune that the Boettchers’ testimony was the most impactful to the jury. So the fact that there is serious doubt being cast upon their testimony sparked him to call on Abbott to pause and investigate.
By Wednesday, a petition asking for Cantu’s life to be spared had garnered more than 150,000 signatures as social media flooded with posts pleading with Abbott for clemency — including from the European Union’s ambassador to the United States Jovita Neliupšienė.
Abbott — Cantu’s last hope for reprieve — did not intervene on his behalf.
On Wednesday morning, Cantu was transported from the Polunsky Unit in Livingston to the Huntsville Unit — a 44-mile trek. Once there, he stayed in a holding cell until 6 p.m., when he was walked to the execution chamber. As witnesses looked through a window to see Cantu take his last breath, the 50-year-old maintained his innocence while he addressed the Kitchen and Mosqueda families, adding he did not believe his execution would bring the families any closure or peace.
Cantu then thanked his mother, family, friends and supporters. Sister Prejean was by his side as the lethal injection began coursing through his veins. Cantu’s death was announced by officials at 6.47pm CT.
Cantu was the first man executed in Texas this year, the 587th overall since Texas resumed capital punishment in 1982, the 2nd in the U.S. put to death this year, and the 1,584th overall since the country resumed executions in 1977.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2024/02/28/ivan-cantu-texas-execution/
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/crime/texas-execution-ivan-cantu-kim-kardashian-b2504372.html

(Source: Washington Post, 28/02/2024)

USA - Oklahoma. HB 3138 for a moratorium passed House Judiciary Committee
USA - 61 botched executions since 1977
USA - Louisiana. Senate passed HB 6
SINGAPORE: BANGLADESHI MAN HANGED FOR MURDER
USA - Pennsylvania. Daniel Gwynn exonerated and released after 30 years on death row
USA - Idaho. Execution of Thomas Eugene Creech halted after 8 failed attempts to insert IV line
SAUDI ARABIA: 7 EXECUTED FOR 'TERRORISM' OFFENSES, STATE MEDIA SAY
INDIA: EX-WRESTLING COACH SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDERING 6 PEOPLE IN FEB 2021
IRAQ: A TERRORIST SENTENCED TO DEATH, DRUG DEALERS GET LIFE IMPRISONMENT
AFGHANISTAN: THE TALIBAN HOLD ANOTHER PUBLIC EXECUTION AS THOUSANDS WATCH AT A STADIUM
IRAN - Hengaw's statistical report on the state of Iran's prisons in 2023
BANGLADESH: 11 TO DIE FOR KILLING SCHOOL STUDENT IN JOYPURHAT 21YRS AGO
THAILAND: 18 SENTENCED TO DEATH, 1 GETS LIFE IN PRISON BRAWL CASE
USA - Idaho. Idaho is set to execute Thomas Eugene Creech, a serial killer
USA - Trump Ally Charlie Kirk Suggests Children Should Watch Public Executions
USA - Louisiana. House approves HB 6
USA - Florida. Jury sentences Howard Steven Ault, 57, White, to death
USA - Texas. Attempts to stop the execution of Ivan Cantu
AFGHANISTAN: THE TALIBAN CARRY OUT A DOUBLE PUBLIC EXECUTION AT A STADIUM
IRAN - Shahin Vasaf death penalty confirmed over Israel espionage charges
CHINA: MAN EXECUTED FOR ROBBERY AND DESECRATING VICTIM'S CORPSE
IRAN - Ahmad Esmaeili (Esmaili) executed in Hamedan on February 21
USA - Louisiana. Justice Committee passes HB 6 for nitrogen
IRAN - A woman, Hajar Atabaki, hanged in Qazvin on January 20
PAKISTAN: SENATE REJECTS BILL FOR PUBLIC EXECUTION OF RAPE CONVICTS
MYANMAR: 3 BRIGADIER GENERALS SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR SURRENDERING TOWN
IRAN - Iraj Paaki executed in Urmia on February 19
IRAQ: SULAIMANI COURT SENTENCES MAN TO DEATH FOR KILLING WIFE
ITALY - Marco Cochi died in Rome
INDIA: MAN GETS DEATH IN 2014 DOUBLE MURDER CASE

1 2 3 [Succ >>]
2024
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
  2023
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2022
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2021
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2020
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
 
2019
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2018
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2017
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2016
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2015
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2014
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
 
2013
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2012
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2011
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2010
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2009
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2008
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
 
2007
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2006
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2005
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
  2004
january
february
march
april
may
june
july
august
september
october
november
december
 
IRAN - Wife of Djalali pleads for EU action
  IRAN - Hands off Cain Year End Report: At least 284 executions in 2020  
  IRAN: HANDS OFF CAIN, THE HANGING OF THE PROTESTER MOSTAFA SALEHI IS A SHAME FOR THE SO-CALLED DEMOCRATIC WORLD   
  USA: ‘BLACK LIVES MATTER’, BUT IS IT ONLY RACISM?  
  IRAN. HANDS OFF CAIN, REDUCTION OF DRUG EXECUTIONS BUT NUMBERS REMAIN WORRISOME  
  HUMAN RIGHTS: DEMONSTRATION OF THE RADICAL PARTY BEFORE IRANIAN EMBASSY 14 FEBRUARY  
news
-
latest actions
-
data base
-
actions
-
who we are
-
registered users
-
credits