Texas Justice

I have long opposed the death penalty for a number of reasons, one of which is that it is final and irreversible. Out of Texas, we get this story:

HOUSTON -- A decade after Ruben Cantu was executed for capital murder, the only witness to the crime is recanting and his co-defendant says Cantu, then 17, wasn't even with him that night.

[snip]

That witness, Juan Moreno, told the Houston Chronicle for its Sunday editions that Cantu wasn't the killer. Moreno said he only identified him at the 1985 trial because he felt pressured and was afraid of authorities.

The doubts now being raised come too late for Cantu. He had long professed his innocence but was executed in Texas on Aug. 24, 1993, at the age of 26.

"You've got a 17-year-old who went to his grave for something he did not do. Texas
murdered an innocent person," Cantu's co-defendant, David Garza, said.

Garza, who was 15 at the time of the murder, recently signed a sworn affidavit saying he allowed his friend to be accused even though Cantu wasn't with him the night of the killing.

Maybe Moreno should be charged with murder. Maybe he could get the death penalty! Except he would only be an accessory to the murder since it was the State of Texas that killed Cantu. Perhaps we should execute the State of Texas.