Kim Kardashian has become an activist for criminal justice and prison reform since she began studying to be a lawyer five years ago, and she takes her work very seriously . But now, some people are doubting her attention to detail after a member of her social media team mistakenly shared the wrong photo of an inmate who is scheduled to be executed. As it turns out, the man in the photo is someone totally different, and now, he’s speaking out.
Kim tried to use her platform to raise attention to the case.
kimkardashian/Instagram
Kim posted an image on her Instagram Stories of Texas inmate Ivan Cantu, who is scheduled to be executed this week. The problem was that she actually shared a photo of Ivan A. Cantu, a project manager based in New York, instead. Inmate Ivan Cantu also has an “A” as his middle initial, so it’s easy to see how this mistake might have happened.
Ivan A. Cantu addressed the blunder himself.
“To all my friends and family, I am not getting executed, some idiot who runs @kimkardashian used my picture instead of Ivan ‘Abner’ Cantu,” Ivan wrote in a since-deleted Facebook post. In his post, he shared a screenshot of Kim’s Instagram story and a screenshot of an article about the other Ivan Cantu.
He has no hard feelings.
View this post on Instagram A post shared by Kim Kardashian (@kimkardashian)
Ivan spoke with TMZ about the incident, and the media outlet reported that he “understands that someone from Kim’s team likely shared the incorrect image by mistake.”
That being said, he also apparently shared that he would accept an apology from Kim directly, considering she has 364 million followers. This could have done a lot of damage!
Kim did correct her mistake.
I heard about Ivan Cantu’s case from Sister Helen Prejean and was really moved by it. In 2001, Ivan was convicted of killing his cousin, James Mosqueda, and his fiancée, Amy Kitchen. Ivan has always maintained his innocence claiming that the rival drug dealer framed him for the… pic.twitter.com/N9SiXfroMv — Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) January 25, 2024
To her credit, Kim did delete the post when it was realized that the mistake was made, and she issued a statement. “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,” she wrote in another Instagram Stories post.
Kim is dedicated to bringing attention to the case.
Aurelien Meunier/Getty Images
Kim has been advocating for the incarcerated Cantu for more than a month, urging her followers to reach out to Texas governor Greg Abbott and ask the state to grant a reprieve. Cantu was charged in 2000 with murder the murders of his cousin James Mosqueda and Mosqueda’s fiancée, Amy Kitchen. He has maintained his innocence.
