Kim Kardashian, while wanting to bring attention to a man scheduled to be executed on Wednesday, Feb. 28, mistakenly posted a picture of the wrong person on her social media.
The person she misidentified as the Texas death row inmate promptly clarified the error made by the reality star, sharing with his friends and family that he was not slated to be executed.
Ivan A. Cantu lives a normal life as a program manager in New York City. However, the dad was thrust into the national spotlight after the billionaire influencer posted him on her Instagram page to her 364 million followers.
Kardashian had inadvertently shared a photo of him instead of another Ivan Cantu, who was found guilty in 2001 for the murder of his cousin James Mosqueda, 27, and his cousin’s girlfriend, Amy Kitchen, 22, in a Dallas apartment in November 2000.
The state’s case against Cantu was built on evidence such as clothes discovered in his apartment with blood matching the victims’ DNA, according to Forbes.
Witness testimony from Cantu’s then-girlfriend, Amy Boettcher, and her brother, Jeff Boettcher, said they both knew about the murders and also played a significant role. Additionally, in 2005, one of Cantu’s trial attorneys signed an affidavit stating that Cantu privately confessed to the murder at the time
The death row prisoner has maintained publicly, despite his conviction, that he did not kill his relative. He alleges that a rival drug dealer was the murderer.
Once the New Yorker’s picture was posted, his family members reached out to him to share with him the flub. Ivan A. thought it was a birthday gag since it was posted on his birthday, but it wasn’t. Kardashian appears to have thought that he was the man on death row and didn’t pay attention to Ivan A.’s people wishing him birthday greetings in the comment section.
When Ivan. A took to his Facebook to set the record straight, “To all my friends and family, I am not getting executed, some idiot who runs @kimkardashian used my picture instead of Ivan ‘Abner’ Cantu,” according to TMZ.
Kardashian or her team posted the black-and-white image on her IG Story and text instructions on how to protest the state-sanctioned murder by signing the petition. That post has been deleted and she has issued an apology for the mistake.
“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 an Instagram Story.
This did not stop Ivan A. from getting an influx of attention, and now his account has been made private.
Kardashian has since taken down the post and posted an article regarding the case. She also tweeted out information. The purpose of her post was to get her followers to sign a petition to get Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to stop the execution.
Texas Gov Greg Abbott is last resort for 30 day reprieve for Ivan CANTU, set to die 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. Urge the Gov to grant a 30 day reprieve…
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) February 27, 2024
While many people support the reality star’s efforts to save Cantu’s life, some people believe he is guilty and that she is on the wrong side of right.
“You’re making a mistake helping this killer,” one person tweeted. “Ivan Cantu murdered James and Amy in cold blood. They were wonderful people with a bright future and Ivan Cantù took that from them. 100% guilty ‘Rival drug gang’. That’s the stupidest crap I’ve ever heard.”
I heard about Ivan Cantu’s case from Sister Helen Prejean and was really moved by it.
— Kim Kardashian (@KimKardashian) January 25, 2024
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
