10 People Who Were Probably Wrongly Executed

8. Ruben Cantu

Ruben Cantu was only 17 years old when he was convicted of armed robbery and the murder of a workman by the name of Pedro Gomez. On 8th November 1984, Cantu and his friend David Garza allegedly broke into a house that was under construction and robbed two men at gunpoint. In an attempt to stop the attackers, Gomez tried to retrieve a gun from underneath a mattress but before he could do so, he was shot and killed instantly.

The other victim, Juan Moreno was also shot however, unbeknown to Cantu and Garza survived the attack and managed to call for help. Police went to visit Moreno in hospital only a few days after the incident took place but he was unable to recognise any of the photos shown to him of possible suspects, one of which was of Ruben Cantu. The case went cold. About four months after the shooting, Cantu was arrested for shooting a police officer, who he claimed had threatened and provoked him.

The case against Cantu was later dropped after the police illegally searched his home. Shortly after Cantu was arrested, a police officer went to visit Juan Moreno for a fourth time, providing him with more photographs of potential suspects, again including Ruben Cantu. Although Moreno did not recognise any of the suspects, he did provide police with Cantu's name. Despite the fact that there was no physical evidence linking Cantu to the crime scene, he was convicted of armed robbery and the murder of Pedro Gomez and was executed on 24th August 1993, aged just 26.

10 years after his execution, Juan Moreno recanted his previous statement claiming that he was pressured by police to pin it on Cantu and admits that the person who did shoot him and Gomez looked nothing like Cantu. Garza later admitted his involvement in the robbery and said he saw the murder take place but admitted that it was in fact a friend of Cantu who fired the shots.