Published on Monday, November 21, 2005 by the Houston Chronicle
Innocent Man Executed in Texas
They were two teenagers who shared a deadly pact of silence: One grew up in prison tortured by a secret that might have stopped his friend's execution, and the other went to his death without revealing what he knew.
Ruben Cantu and David Garza's teenage bond was forged in the unforgiving streets on the south side of San Antonio, where the only rule they learned to respect was never to snitch.
When they were both arrested in 1985 for a neighborhood murder-robbery, Cantu, 17 at the time of the crime, insisted he was innocent and was condemned to die. Garza, 15, admitted guilt only to robbery but not the murder and got a deal.
Now, Garza has broken a 20-year silence with a surprising story that would appear to clear Cantu and implicate another man. Garza says he was with another neighborhood teen on Nov. 8, 1984, when they broke into a home, shot and killed one man, and seriously wounded another.
"Ruben Cantu had nothing to do with the murder, attempted murder and robbery of the two men at 605 Briggs Street. I should know," Garza wrote in a sworn statement obtained by the Houston Chronicle.
Posted by Mentor at November 21, 2005 05:55 PM