Kim Kardashian has been sued for defamation after she posted a photo of a New York man on her Instagram account last year, falsely identifying him as a death row inmate, found guilty of double homicide in Texas.
“The state will execute Ivan Cantu in 2 days,” Ms Kardashian captioned her post at the time with a black-and-white headshot of Mr Cantu.
“Please sign the petition to demand that Collin County DA Greg Willis request to withdraw the execution date.”
The complainant, Ivan A Cantu, filed the lawsuit in Los Angeles, earlier this week, claiming that Ms Kardashian’s post had caused him severe emotional distress and public humiliation after she showed his photo to her millions of followers.
Notably, Cantu, the real convict was put to death by lethal injection on February 28, 2024 while Mr Cantu, the Middletown, New York resident who was posted by Ms Kardashian, remains alive.
“At the time Kim Kardashian defamed his reputation, he was grieving a very private family loss. As a result of the Kardashian abuse, Mr Cantu’s privacy was destroyed at a most critical and sensitive time, and he has suffered very real trauma that will last a lifetime,” said Greg Sobo, Mr Cantu’s attorney.
“Social media is a powerful force. It can be used for good: to spark social change, to warn of danger and to foster relationships. But, when abused, social media can also inflict pain, suffering and tragedy.”
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Kardashian’s response
Regarding the mixup, Ms Kardashian’s lawyer, Michael Rhodes said her heart was in the right place, despite the error.
“It was a simple mistake of using the public photo of another man with the same name to promote Kim’s longstanding commitment to the cause of criminal justice reform,” he told Rolling Stone.
In recent years, Ms Kardashian has become a noted activist, batting for prison reforms. She gained prominence after famously lobbying President Donald Trump to commute Alice Marie Johnson’s life sentence linked to a non-violent drug crime.