Kim Kardashian is being sued after she used a photo of the wrong man to appeal to her hundreds of millions of Instagram followers last year to save a death row inmate. The reality star was hit with a lawsuit Thursday accusing her of libel and slander after she posted in February 2024 on behalf of a condemned killer, Ivan Cantu, pleading with her followers to sign a petition to the Collin County, Texas district attorney to withdraw the double murderer’s execution date. “THE STATE WILL EXECUTE IVAN CANTU IN 2 DAYS,” the reality star wrote above a black-and-white headshot of a smiling Cantu. But the picture she included was not of the killer and instead of a Morgan Stanley project manager from Westchester, New York with the same name. “To all my friends and family, I am not getting executed,” the 60-year-old wrote on Facebook after being contacted by concerned relatives. “Some idiot who runs @kimkardashian used my picture instead of Ivan ‘Abner’ Cantu.” Kardashians’s attorney, Michael Rhodes, told NBC News in a statement that the reality star, who is also studying to be a lawyer, made a “simple mistake” with the post “to promote Kim’s longstanding commitment to the cause of criminal justice reform.” The New York-based Cantu filed the suit in Los Angeles court claiming that Kardashian’s error exposed him “to hatred, contempt, and/or ridicule.” His attorney, Greg Sobo, argued that given Kardashian’s celebrity status, she should “know the power of social media.”
