Experience: I know the date my husband is going to die

'I certainly never imagined I would fall for someone on death row'

'Death row inmates get virtually no phone privileges, so calling hasn’t been an option. We’ve never been able to touch.'

I was 45 years old and doing a criminal justice degree in Louisiana when I met Ivan Cantu. I'd written to a man on death row in Texas whose story I was interested in for my course. He had learning difficulties, and Ivan, his fellow inmate, replied for him, offering to assist with our correspondence. That was July 2005. Ivan and I wrote to each other during the next year and I began helping him with his appeal. Eventually I arranged to visit him. Death row was a horrifying place.

Ivan had been sentenced for murdering his cousin and his cousin's fiancee at their home in Dallas. At his trial, the state said it was a drug deal gone wrong. At first I thought he was guilty. As I read more about the crime, I didn't think he could have done it. But one of the first things I asked that visit was whether he had killed those people. "Oh my God, I did not," he replied.

The only picture I'd seen of Ivan was his mugshot online. I was expecting a scrawny mobster type, but when they brought him in, I fell in love. He has very kind, loving eyes. I didn't for a moment think he had the same feelings, but we talked as though we had been friends for years. I felt I knew him from his letters – he'd been very open in them.

Ivan thinks the victims were killed by rival drug dealers out to frame him – he had become mixed up with the wrong people. He was convicted largely on the testimony of his then girlfriend, who claimed he was covered in blood on the night of the murders, but apart from some blood-smeared jeans found in a bin in his home in Dallas (which were two sizes too big for him), no evidence ever linked Ivan to the crime scene. Phone records showed someone was in his house the night after the murders. That day Ivan and his girlfriend had taken a trip to Arkansas. Someone had known he would be out and had planted the jeans. I was determined to help Ivan after I realised he was innocent, but I would have helped him regardless – no one should face the death penalty.

In June 2006, 8 visits after we first met, Ivan sent me a letter saying he loved me. I hadn't told him of my feelings. I'd been divorced for more than 10 years and my son and daughter were in their 20s and had left home, but I wasn't looking for love. I certainly never imagined I would fall for someone on death row.

Every week or two I leave my house at 4am and make the four-and-a-half-hour trip to see him. We have only two hours together. Once every 2 or 3 months, I spend the weekend at a nearby hotel and visit Ivan on a Saturday and then again on Monday. We call that "spending the weekend together". Death row inmates get virtually no phone privileges, so calling hasn't been an option. We've never been able to touch.

It's tough. I feel I'm in a prison, too. Ivan wanted me to date and be able to have sex – he said I had to live my life. But I don't want to do that.

I told my friends at the casino where I work that I was writing to Ivan as part of my law degree, but when I said it was developing into something more, they asked if I was sure. I said I couldn't remember my life without him and they said they would support me, even offering to help pay for some of my trips. For a long time I didn't let my family know. One day my daughter and I were shopping and I was looking at cards for Ivan and she said: "Were you ever going to tell me you loved this guy?" I started to cry. The rest of my family think I'm crazy, but my daughter has met Ivan and likes him. She says she sees how much he loves me. In April 2007 he proposed and she stood in to read his vows for him at the county courthouse.

On 28 March this year I learned Ivan had been given an execution date: 30 August. I knew it would eventually happen, but it was still a shock. I fell apart. The next time I saw Ivan, we sat there crying. He was so frightened.

We're filing an appeal to the Supreme Court. If they turn us down we'll file to the clemency board, asking them to reverse his sentence to life in prison. I feel very isolated – nobody understands what I'm going through. If we're unsuccessful, I will be there for Ivan the day he is executed by lethal injection. It's not something I want to do, but I won't let him die alone.

Source: The Guardian, June 4 2011

Click here to take action now

_________________________

Use the tags below or the search engine at the top of this page to find updates, older or related articles on this Website.

Comments

Singapore executes three drug mules over two days

Singapore hanged three people for drug offences last week, bringing the total number of executions to 17 this year - the highest since 2003. These come a week before a constitutional challenge against the death penalty for drug offences is due to be heard. Singapore has some of the world's harshest anti-drug laws, which it says are a necessary deterrent to drug crime, a major issue elsewhere in South East Asia. Anyone convicted of trafficking - which includes selling, giving, transporting or administering - more than 15g of diamorphine, 30g of cocaine, 250g of methamphetamine and 500g of cannabis in Singapore will be handed the death sentence.

Florida | After nearly 50 years on death row, Tommy Zeigler seeks final chance at freedom

The Winter Garden Police chief was at a party on Christmas Eve 1975 when he received a phone call from his friend Tommy Zeigler, the owner of a furniture store on Dillard Street. “I’ve been shot, please hurry,” Zeigler told the chief as he struggled for breath. When police arrived at the store, Zeigler, 30, managed to unlock the door and then collapsed “with a gaping bullet hole through his lower abdomen,” court records show. In the store, detectives found a gruesome, bloody crime scene and several guns. Four other people — Zeigler’s wife, his in-laws and a laborer — lay dead.

Louisiana death row inmate freed after nearly 30 years as overturned conviction upends case

A Louisiana man who spent nearly 30 years on death row walked out of prison Wednesday after a judge overturned his conviction and granted him bail. Jimmie Duncan, now in his 60s, was sentenced to death in 1998 for the alleged rape and drowning of his girlfriend’s 23-month-old daughter, Haley Oliveaux — a case long clouded by disputed forensic testimony. His release comes months after a state judge ruled that the evidence prosecutors used to secure the conviction was unreliable and rooted in discredited bite-mark analysis.

Oklahoma board recommends clemency for inmate set to be executed next week

A voting board in Oklahoma decided Wednesday to recommend clemency for Tremane Wood, a death row inmate who is scheduled to receive a lethal injection next week at the state penitentiary in McAlester. Wood, 46, faces execution for his conviction in the 2001 murder of Ronnie Wipf, a migrant farmworker, at an Oklahoma City hotel on New Year's Eve, court records show. The recommendation was decided in a 3-2 vote by the Oklahoma Pardon and Parole Board, consisting of five members appointed by either the governor or the state's top judicial official, according to CBS News affiliate KWTV. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Sitt will consider the recommendation as he weighs whether to grant or deny Wood's clemency request, which would mean sparing him from execution and reducing his sentence to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Vietnam | Woman sentenced to death for poisoning 4 family members with cyanide

A woman in Dong Nai Province in southern Vietnam was sentenced to death on Thursday for killing family members including two young children in a series of cyanide poisonings that shocked her community. The Dong Nai People's Court found 39-year-old Nguyen Thi Hong Bich guilty of murder and of illegally possessing and using toxic chemicals. Judges described her actions as "cold-blooded, inhumane and calculated," saying Bich exploited the trust of her victims and "destroyed every ethical bond within her family."

Afghanistan | Two Sons Of Executed Man Also Face Death Penalty, Says Taliban

The Taliban governor’s spokesperson in Khost said on Tuesday that two sons of a man executed earlier that day have also been sentenced to death. Their executions, he said, have been postponed because the heir of the victims is not currently in Afghanistan. Mostaghfer Gurbaz, spokesperson for the Taliban governor in Khost, also released details of the charges against the man executed on Tuesday, identified as Mangal. He said Mangal was accused of killing members of a family.

Afghanistan's Taliban rulers carry out public execution in sports stadium

The man had been convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including children, and was executed by one of their relatives, according to police. Afghanistan's Taliban authorities carried out the public execution of a man on Tuesday convicted of killing 13 members of a family, including several children, earlier this year. Tens of thousands of people attended the execution at a sports stadium in the eastern city of Khost, which the Supreme Court said was the eleventh since the Taliban seized power in 2021 in the wake of the chaotic withdrawal of US and NATO forces.

Utah | Ralph Menzies dies on death row less than 3 months after his execution was called off

Judge was set to consider arguments in December about Menzies’ mental fitness Ralph Menzies, who spent more than 3 decades on Utah’s death row for the 1986 murder of Maurine Hunsaker, has died. Menzies, 67, died of “presumed natural causes at a local hospital” Wednesday afternoon, according to the Utah Department of Corrections. Matt Hunsaker, Maurine Hunsaker’s son, said Menzies’ death “was a complete surprise.” “First off, I’d say that I’m numb. And second off, I would say, grateful,” Hunsaker told Utah News Dispatch. “I’m grateful that my family does not have to endure this for the holidays.”

Iran carries out public hanging of "double-rapist"

Iran on Tuesday publicly executed a man after convicting him of raping two women in the northern province of Semnan. The execution was carried out in the town of Bastam after the Supreme Court upheld the verdict, the judiciary's official outlet Mizan Online reported. Mizan cited the head of the provincial judiciary, Mohammad Akbari, as saying the ruling had been 'confirmed and enforced after precise review by the Supreme Court'. The provincial authority said the man had 'deceived two women and committed rape by force and coercion', adding that he used 'intimidation and threats' to instil fear of reputational harm in the victims.

Burkina Faso to bring back death penalty

Burkina Faso's military rulers will bring back the death penalty, which was abolished in 2018, the country's Council of Ministers announced on Thursday. "This draft penal code reinstates the death penalty for a number of offences, including high treason, acts of terrorism, acts of espionage, among others," stated the information service of the Burkinabe government. Burkina Faso last carried out an execution in 1988.

Death Penalty News

Search This Blog