It's cases like this that have made me come to oppose the government's death penalty.
Sam D. Millsap Jr., then the Bexar County district attorney who decided to charge Cantu with capital murder, told the newspaper he never should have sought the death penalty in a case based on testimony from an eyewitness who identified a suspect only after police showed him Cantu's photo three separate times.If he were still in prison, although much of his life would have been taken by the state, at least some justice could be done (assuming he is indeed innocent). And life imprisonment is cheaper. Sure, there's the issue of early release of some really bad guys — but we can blame that on the overcrowding that has exploded since the criminalization of everything from selling marijuana or owning an illegal gun to resisting the taxman and "insider trading."
