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As clock ticks toward another Trump presidency, federal death row prisoners appeal for clemency

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President-elect Donald Trump’s return to office is putting a spotlight on the U.S. penitentiary in Terre Haute, which houses federal death row. In Bloomington, a small community of death row spiritual advisors is struggling to support the prisoners to whom they minister.  Ross Martinie Eiler is a Mennonite, Episcopal lay minister and member of the Catholic Worker movement, which assists the homeless. And for the past three years, he’s served as a spiritual advisor for a man on federal death row.
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Texas set to execute Ivan Cantu, 20 years he maintains innocence

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Texas death row inmate Ivan Cantu is scheduled for execution on April 26, 2023. Cantu was convicted in Collin County for killing his cousin James Mosqueda, and his cousin's fiance, Amy Kitchen, in 2000. Cantu has spent over 20 years on death row, and he has not wavered his story and maintains his innocence.

Matt Duff, the host and private investigator on the podcast "Cousins by Blood" has spent years diving into the case and has compiled a strong argument that suggests Cantu could have been framed and has spent the past 20 years rotting in a prison cell at the Polunsky Unit in Texas for a crime he did not commit.

Duff interviews the star testimony in Cantu's case that sent him to death row. Also, the podcast shares the early jail tapes to hear first-hand conversations with Cantu and his family during his initial arrest.

The jail tapes embody the frustration in Cantu's voice in 2000 as a man fighting for his life behind bars with an ill-equipped defense team and a family naive to the Texas criminal justice system nor the financial means to stand a chance.

The podcast sheds light on Cantu's defense team during the murder trial. The state utilized five experts; the state-appointed defense requested zero experts. The podcast shows that the defense called zero witnesses during the guilt and innocence phase and presented no exculpatory evidence. His counsel did not interview witnesses on the state's witness list before trial and did not request a defense investigator or conduct any independent investigation, according to the podcast.

In addition, Duff compiled evidence alleging the state's star witness committed perjury after Cantu's conviction and new evidence shows that during the murder trial investigating officers improperly coached witnesses. Duff also adds new evidence from his hired experts that discredits the timeline when the murders occurred.

Since 2000, Cantu has maintained his innocence and requested an investigation into the murder, and DNA testing to help his case. The request was denied in the Texas appeal court.

Source: manisteenews.com, Staff, March 26, 2023

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"One is absolutely sickened, not by the crimes that the wicked have committed,
but by the punishments that the good have inflicted."

— Oscar Wilde
Location: Texas, USA
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