Texas Execution Information Center

Execution Report: Peter Cantu

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A jury found Peter Cantu guilty of capital murder in February 1994 and sentenced him to death. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals affirmed the conviction and sentence in January 1997. All of his subsequent appeals in state and federal court were denied.

Four of the other assailants that night were also convicted of capital murder and sentenced to death. Derrick Sean O'Brien was executed in July 2006. Jose Medellin was executed in August 2008. Both men apologized for the crime in their last statements. Raul Omar Villareal and Efrain Perez were sentenced to death, but following the U.S. Supreme Court's 2005 ruling that executing criminals who were not yet 18 at the time of their crimes is unconstitutional, their sentences were commuted to life. Venancio Medellin, who was 14 at the time, was convicted of aggravated sexual assault and sentenced to 40 years in prison. He remains in custody as of this writing.

The murders of Elizabeth Pena and Jennifer Ertman affected Houston deeply. To this day, Houstonians remember the girls' names and what happened to them. A memorial was erected to them at Waltrip High School, which they attended. A memorial for them was also placed at T.C. Jester Park. The murders also forced Houston city officials to treat gangs as a serious crime problem, when they had previously denied that there was a gang problem in the city.

Additionally, through the work of Houston crime victims advocate Andy Kahan, the case led to statewide policy changes giving crime victims and their families more of a voice in the criminal justice process. At Cantu's trial, immediately before the sentence was pronounced, Judge Bill Harmon allowed Jennifer's father, Randy Ertman, to speak directly to Cantu. Such victim impact statements, as they are called, are now commonplace.

The Ertmans and Penas, again with Kahan's assistance, were also instrumental in getting Texas law changed so that victims' relatives are permitted to witness the executions of their loved ones' killers.

Cantu declined requests for interviews prior to his execution. The victims' families attended the execution, but no one attended on his behalf. He did not look toward the witnesses and made no last statement. The lethal injection was started, and he was pronounced dead at 6:17 p.m.

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By David Carson. Posted on 18 September 2010.
Sources: Sources: Texas Attorney General's office, Texas Department of Criminal Justice, court documents, public records, Associated Press, Houston Chronicle, murdervictims.com.

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