Ruben Cardenas Research Paper

Man Executed for Rape and Murder In the 1997 murder and rape case of Mayra Laguna, Ruben Cardenas was charged and sent to prison for her murder. According to the article Cardenas entered his cousin Mayra’s room through an open window kidnapped her and raped then killed her before leaving her body near a canal. According to Cardenas he was not responsible for the murder of his own cousin. He did send out a letter to his family that read “I will not and cannot apologize for someone else’s crime, but, I will be Back for Justice. You can count on that” (Brennan, Daily News). For Cardenas being in prison for two decades and then getting the news that he was going to be on death row was difficult for him. However, if Cardenas had only raped Mayra then that would be a whole different

It was also known that “There was an international push to stop his execution because Cárdenas, was never given the chance to speak to his country’s consulate after his arrest more than 20 years ago, a violation of an international treaty. Cárdenas also was not provided a lawyer until 11 days after his arrest, and his representatives claimed evidence against him was faulty and his confession was coerced”. Which is wrong for them to have done that to Mr. Cardenas. Well I believe so. But I do feel that he should have gotten the death penalty because not only did he rape his own cousin, but he also murdered her. Which if I actually think about it, in my opinion I would want that either way if I were the victims family member. I wouldn’t want a man like Cardenas to be out in the streets acting like nothing happened to him. I do feel that what the Supreme Court filed on his case was necessary. If it was Cardenas or not, then why did he plead guilty when he went to trial. It wouldn’t make sense and if it wasn’t him that murdered Mayra then he should have fought the case and not just let it