Kim Kardashian mistakenly identified the wrong man as a death row inmate.
When asking her social media followers to petition for a review of Ivan Cantu’s case, Kardashian, 43, accidentally shared a black-and-white picture of Ivan A. Cantu — a project manager who lives in New York.
“To all my friends and family, I am not getting executed, some idiot who runs @kimkardashian [socials] used my picture instead of Ivan ‘Abner’ Cantu,” he wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post on Monday, February 26.
The New York resident told TMZ that he first learned of the mistake from his family — and he originally thought they were joking. He added that he wouldn’t be opposed to an apology from Kardashian as her post was shared with her 364 million Instagram followers.
Kardashian took to her Instagram Story on Monday to address the error, writing, “A wrong image of Mr. Cantu was posted earlier today and I would like to apologize to the person who’s [sic] image was used in error.”
She also took to Instagram to “urge” Texas Governor Greg Abbott “to use his power to allow time for new evidence in Ivan’s case to be evaluated, lest Texas execute a wrongfully convicted man.”
The Kardashians star has previously spoken out about Cantu’s case via social media, explaining she was “really moved” by it.
“In 2001, Ivan was convicted of killing his cousin, James Mosqueda, and his fiancée, Amy Kitchen,” she wrote via X in January. “Ivan has always maintained his innocence claiming that the rival drug dealer framed him for the murders.”
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She continued, “There was false testimony by the State’s star witnesses who later recanted their statements and evidence withheld by the prosecution that would be extremely impactful. Even the jurors want to help now and support Ivan’s appeals, believing they did not hear all the evidence at trial.”
Cantu is set to be executed on Wednesday, February 28, after a judge canceled his previously scheduled execution in April 2023 when the defense filed an appeal about false testimony and new evidence, per Kardashian.
Kardashian has been involved in criminal justice reform for years, and has been open about her journey to become a lawyer since registering with the California State Bar to study law in 2018. She revealed in April 2023 that she still has a lot of studying to do before she takes the official bar exam.
“I’m probably going to take the bar in February 2025,” Kardashian said at the 2023 Time100 Summit in New York City. “I think it’s like a 36 percent pass rate.”
