Texas prison officials executed 50-year-old Dallas native Ivan Abner Cantu Wednesday despite major doubts over his conviction and a high-profile campaign to save him. A key witness recanted their testimony in the 2000 double homicide, which killed Cantu’s cousin and his cousin’s fiancée, and over which Cantu had always maintained his innocence. Among those who called for a stay in Cantu’s execution were jurors from his trial, Democratic congressmembers, celebrities and Catholic activists. Texas medical officials injected Cantu with pentobarbital at 6:26 p.m. He died 21 minutes later.
In related news, Idaho prison officials had to call off the execution Wednesday of Thomas Eugene Creech after failing to establish IV lines. The all-volunteer medical team attempted to find a viable vein for the lethal injection for nearly an hour, trying eight different sites on his body. The execution was scheduled to be Idaho’s first in 12 years.