Texas Executes Gang Member For Rape-Murders Of 2 Teenage Girls
AAP August 18, 2010, 10:17 am
Peter Cantu (Texas prison photo)
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Texas on Tuesday executed Peter Cantu, a gang member sentenced to die for the rape and murder of two teenagers that he committed when he was 18 years old, state authorities said. Cantu, 35, was given a lethal injection and declared dead at 2317 GMT (0917 AEST) at the prison in Huntsville, Texas, prison officials said.
Cantu and five gang members were sentenced for attacking the two teenage girls, ages 14 and 16, in June 1993 in Houston, Texas. The two victims "were abducted by Cantu and four members of a street gang he led as they walked along a set of railroad tracks, a short cut home for them," the Texas Department of Criminal Justice said in a statement.
"Both were sexually assaulted by the gang members, beaten and strangled," the statement read. The bodies were found four days later, and the six gang members were arrested following a tip from Cantu's brother. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott described Cantu in a statement as "the self appointed leader of a gang in Houston".
Cantu is the last of three gang members sentenced to die. The other three were minors at the time, and are serving lengthy prison sentences. It was the 16th execution this year in Texas -- the US state with the highest execution rate -- and the 36th person executed in the United States in 2010.
