HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Reuben Cardenas was executed by lethal injection in Texas on Wednesday night, November 8, 2017, after spending 20 years on death row for the 1997 murder of 15-year-old Myra Lagona. The execution proceeded despite a last-minute flurry of legal appeals, a request for DNA testing, and an intervention by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, leaving a lingering question over whether the state put an innocent man to death.
Cardenas, 47, was pronounced dead at 10:26 p. m. Central Time inside the Huntsville Unit, a facility known to prison staff simply as “The Walls.”
The execution was delayed for over four hours as the U. S. Supreme Court considered a final appeal to halt the procedure.
The court denied the request, clearing the way for the lethal injection of pentobarbital to begin.
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Cardenas did not make an oral final statement. However, a written statement was released afterward. In it, he thanked his family, his attorneys, and the Mexican consulate for their support.
He also wrote, “I will not and cannot apologize for someone else’s crime. But I will be back for justice. You can count on that.”
The statement was described by some observers as less a farewell than a threat, though it underscored his consistent claim of innocence.
The case against Cardenas was built on his own confession to police, the discovery of Lagona’s body where he said it would be, and testimony from a co-defendant. He was convicted by a Hidalgo County jury in 1998 and sentenced to death. But for years, his legal team argued that the confession was coerced and that the evidence was circumstantial at best.
The central controversy in the case revolves around DNA evidence. Cardenas’ attorneys repeatedly requested that fingernail scrapings, hair samples, and blood evidence from the crime scene be retested using modern forensic methods. They argued that such testing could have exonerated him or at least cast doubt on the verdict.
Those requests were denied by courts at every level, including the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and federal courts.
On the night of the execution, his lawyers filed emergency motions with the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals and federal courts, asking for a stay to allow the DNA testing. Each was denied in turn. The case then moved to the U.
S. Supreme Court, where justices deliberated for nearly four hours before rejecting the appeal.
The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights had also issued precautionary measures, urging the United States to halt the execution until Cardenas’ international petition could be fully considered. The commission argued that Cardenas, a Mexican national, had been denied his rights under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations. Despite the international pressure, the state of Texas proceeded.
Human rights lawyer Gregory Kuikanddal, who represented Mexico’s interests in the case, told reporters outside the prison that the execution represented a failure of the justice system. “What separates a functioning justice system from disorder is due process,” he said. “And Reuben Cardenas was denied that due process at every turn.”
The victim, Myra Lagona, was 15 years old when she disappeared from her bedroom in McAllen, Texas, on a February night in 1997. Her younger sister, who shared the room, later testified that she saw a man take her sister. The body was found days later in a field.
The case has haunted the community for two decades.
For Lagona’s family, the execution brought a measure of closure after 20 years of waiting. They have maintained that Cardenas was guilty and that the evidence, including his confession, was sufficient. “Myra was a daughter, a sister, a friend,” a family spokesperson said.
“She never got to grow up. We hope this brings peace.”
But for Cardenas’ supporters, the execution leaves an unresolved question. “Would that testing have exposed a wrongful conviction? Or would it have simply confirmed what a Hidalgo County jury had already decided two decades earlier?”
asked one advocate. “Because the evidence was never retested, that question outlived the man Texas executed.”
Cardenas was the seventh person executed in Texas in 2017. His case has drawn comparisons to other high-profile death row cases where DNA evidence later proved innocence, though no such exoneration occurred here. The state maintains that the evidence against him was overwhelming and that the appeals process was thorough.
As the clock struck 10:26 p. m. , the witnesses in the death chamber watched as Cardenas took a few breaths, mumbled something inaudible, and then began snoring.
Within less than a minute, all movement stopped. The man who had spent two decades proclaiming his innocence was gone.
Outside the prison, a small group of protesters held signs calling for an end to the death penalty. Others, including members of Lagona’s family, stood in silence. The debate over the case is unlikely to end with Cardenas’ death.
The DNA evidence that was never tested remains in storage, a silent testament to a question that may never be answered.
The execution of Reuben Cardenas marks the end of a 20-year legal battle, but it also highlights the ongoing controversy over the use of capital punishment in cases where forensic evidence is disputed. For now, the state of Texas has carried out its sentence. The question of whether justice was served, however, will linger.
