Ivan Cantu Petition Against Texas Execution Receives 100,000 Signatures

More than 140,000 people have signed a petition calling for the execution of a Texas death row inmate to be stopped.

Ivan Cantu, 50, is scheduled to die by lethal injection on Wednesday. He was condemned to death for the fatal shooting of his cousin, James Mosqueda, 27, and his cousin's girlfriend, Amy Kitchen, 22, during a robbery in November 2000 at their north Dallas home.

Cantu has long said he is innocent, and advocates have questioned his conviction because of claims of false testimony and questionable evidence.

A MoveOn petition has been created by advocate Sister Helen Prejean that calls on Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to halt the execution. As of early Tuesday, the petition had amassed 143,671 signatures.

"There was not fairness at this trial," Prejean told Newsweek via email. "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."

She added: "There's no way I would acquiesce or be complicit in the death of Ivan Cantu and simply pray him into eternity. This is not the God of life I believe in."

The petition states that the recent "vigorous investigation into Ivan's case has uncovered serious exculpatory evidence that was suppressed or manipulated at trial by state officials.

"Additionally, key state witnesses have recanted their testimony and, in light of these findings, three trial jurors have stated that had they known of these wrongdoings at trial, they very possibly would have rendered a different verdict."

It also states that the district attorney disclosed that "the state's star witness in the original conviction case falsely testified and the lead detective knew she was lying."

The petition adds: "Everyone deserves a fair trial. We want the judicial system to scrutinize the new evidence in Ivan's case that exposes fraudulent testimony and wrongdoing by state witnesses and law enforcement… All we are asking is for the execution to be delayed and an inquiry into new evidence to be opened."

Newsweek has contacted Willis and Abbott's offices for comment via email.

Cantu has said the evidence to prove his innocence was there from the very beginning.

"From the first day—everything was there to investigate the case and prove my innocence," Cantu said in an interview with Noticias Telemundo. "But when I explained it, they didn't believe me."

He added that "it's just days before they want to put me on a stretcher [to receive a lethal injection] for a crime I didn't commit—we're doing our best to present the information to the courts, but it's like they don't care."

Cantu had previously been scheduled to be executed on April 26, 2023. But days before the execution was due to take place, a judge in Collin County, where Cantu was convicted, withdrew his execution date, saying more review was needed of Cantu's claims. However, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals later rejected the request for an evidentiary hearing and a new execution date was set for February 28.