Lise Olsen of the Houston Chronicle and Maro Robbins of the San Antonio Express-News, both Hearst papers, continue to investigate the case of Ruben Cantu, the second of three innocent men identified in the last year and a half, as being likely innocents executed by Texas. Today, they report that the police officer in charge of the case had made bad arrests before and had been disciplined for errors in judgment.
The Houston Chronicle report is here.
San Antonio Express- News is here.
The sergeant in charge of an investigation that led to the possibly wrongful execution of a Texas man had arrested innocent people before and had been suspended three times for errors in judgment over his 31 years at the San Antonio Police Department.
As a supervisor in the homicide unit, Bill Ewell was one of the driving forces behind a controversial 1985 capital murder conviction. Executed for the crime, in which one man was shot to death and another critically injured, was Ruben Cantu, who went to his death claiming he was not the killer.
And:
Attorneys on both sides of the case now say Ewell's past mistakes as well as the possibility that he may have had a personal reason for pursuing Cantu could have undermined the prosecution.
The original November 2005 Chronicle reporting on the Cantu case is here.
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