Sign the appeal
Ivan Abner Cantu, aged 50, has been a Hispanic inmate on death row in Texas since 2000. He was sentenced to death in 2001 for the murder of his cousin James Masqueda and James' girlfriend Amy Kitchen in Dallas. During the entire trial, Ivan had no proper defence, no witnesses were called, no expert witnesses were requested, and no DNA tests were carried out. Ivan has always maintained total innocence: he had no criminal record and worked as a labourer and in a church, even though he grew up in a difficult environment.
For almost twenty years he has been in contact with Sant'Egidio as a faithful and dedicated pen-pal. One of Ivan's pen-pals, Dani (who lives in Washington DC) wrote: 'Ivan and I exchange letters once or twice a month, I count on his letters and he counts on mine [...] I don't believe in death penalty, and even if he were guilty, I don't think he should die'. Now that the execution has been set for 26 April, we want to stand together with Ivan, in compassion and firm renunciation of any revenge and violence, and demand that his life be spared.
Let us rid the world of the death penalty, sign the appeal here, and save Ivan's life
