Kim Kardashian and Texas death row inmate Ivan Cantu connection explained
Kim Kardashian, who has been advocating for several inmates over the years, has appealed to Texas Governor Greg Abbott to save Ivan Cantu.
Kim Kardashian, who has been advocating for several inmates over the years, has appealed to Texas Governor Greg Abbott to save Ivan Cantu. In 2021, the Texas native was convicted for the killing of his cousin James Mosqueda, 27, and Mosqueda's fiancée, Amy Kitchen, 22.
While Cantu has always claimed innocence, he is scheduled to be executed via lethal injection on Wednesday.
On January 25, she shared a petition plea for the convicted inmate, saying “Ivan has 5 days to live”. "Please sign the petition to demand that Collin County DA Greg Willis request to withdraw the execution date."
In another appeal to Governor Abbott, the reality TV star and fashion mogul said in a statement: “Texas Gov Greg Abbott is last resort for 30 day reprieve for Ivan Cantu, set to die on Wednesday, Feb 28.” “Urge him to use his power to allow time for new evidence in Ivan's case to be evaluated, lest Texas execute a wrongfully convicted man.”
Taking to X (formerly Twitter) recently, Kardashian mistakenly shared a black-and-white photo of Ivan A. Cantu, a project manager based in New York.
The mix-up could be due to the fact that Texas death row inmate and the project manager share the same first and last name.
How did New York resident react to Kardashian's post?
After she identified the wrong man as a death row inmate, the NY project manager clarified in a Facebook post: "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 told TMZ that his family informed him about Kardashian's post. He added that he would not be opposed to Kardashian issuing a statement of regret she has 364 million Instagram followers.
Following this, Kardashian deleted the Instagram story and was quick to issue an apology.
“A wrong image of Mr. Cantu was posted earlier today and I would like to apologize to the person who’s image was used in error,” the Skims founder wrote.
All you need to know about Kardashian & Cantu connection
This isn't the first time that Kardashian backed Cantu. Last month, she shared a lengthy tweet highlighting the details of the case. "I heard about Ivan Cantu’s case from Sister Helen Prejean and was really moved by it," she said in a tweet.
“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 and his lawyers have continued battling for his release from death row by accusing the trial's major witness of lying under oath.
Governor Abbott will finally decide whether to reduce his sentence, offer him an exemption, or stick with the original 2000 sentence. His execution by lethal injection was postponed in 2012 and 2023.