Texas Execution Information Center

Execution Report: Domingo Cantu Jr.

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A jury found Cantu guilty of capital murder in October 1988 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in June 1992. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

From death row, Cantu wrote letters to anti-death penalty groups, claiming innocence. He wrote that when he was arrested, he knew nothing about what was going on. At the police station, "a detective ... questioned me about a murder I knew nothing about," he wrote. Later, the detective "asked me to sign to pieces of paper, so I could be released. Being that I was practically illiterate at the time, I asked what were the pieces of paper and he told me they were my statements to what we talked about, so I signed them without having him read them to me." Cantu claimed that all of the physical evidence used against him was fabricated.

In 1993, Cantu stabbed and wounded a fellow death row inmate in the throat with a 13-inch shiv fashioned out of a typewriter key.

In 1999, Cantu received permission to have DNA testing conducted on his shirt and underwear. The victim's DNA was positively matched to the blood on his clothing.

Cantu expressed love to his family in his last statement. He was pronounced dead at 6:23 p.m.

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By David Carson. Posted on 14 November 2002.
Sources: Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Texas Attorney General's Office, Associated Press, letters from Domingo Cantu.

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