Final February, Kim Kardashian shared a photograph of Ivan Cantu on social media, saying he was a dying row inmate and that state of Texas would execute him in two days. Neither have been true.
The Cantu shared within the photograph is a resident of Westchester, N.Y., and has not been sentenced to dying for double homicide.
He’s, nevertheless, very indignant in regards to the mix-up and suing the star for defamation, in response to an unfiled civil criticism submitted to Los Angeles Superior Courtroom on Thursday. Within the criticism, Cantu lambastes Kardashian for sharing an unauthorized photograph of his face along with her greater than 350 million Instagram followers, saying the incident has brought about him extreme psychological and emotional trauma.
Cantu has the identical title because the Texas dying row inmate who was put to dying with a deadly injection two days after Kardashian’s submit.
The late Cantu was convicted of the murders of his cousin and his cousin’s fiancée in 2000. He insisted upon his innocence till his dying.
Texas dying row inmate Ivan Cantu was put to dying by deadly injection on Feb. 28, 2024.
(Texas Division of Legal Justice )
Kardashian’s lawyer Michael Rhodes defended the submit as “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.”
The Instagram submit accommodates a photograph of the wrong Cantu and a hyperlink to a petition demanding the Collin County district legal professional withdraw the execution date.
“The image was taken down almost immediately once the error was discovered,” Rhodes stated in an announcement to The Instances. “We’d prefer to solve this without litigation, but of course will defend Kim as needed.”
Cantu says that though the submit was eliminated, it nonetheless brought about extreme injury to his popularity and uncovered him to hate and contempt by falsely figuring out him as a double assassin.
“Cantu suffered serious emotional damage and injury in the form of emotional and mental anguish, psychological harm, embarrassment, anxiety, loss of sleep, nightmares, post-traumatic stress, headaches, need for medical care and emotional counseling,” the criticism states.
He’s suing Kardashian for libel, slander, intentional infliction of emotional misery, invasion of privateness, negligence and representing him in false mild. He’s searching for compensatory and punitive damages in an quantity to be decided in court docket.
“Kardashian published and disseminated false information without privilege or authorization, and her acts were intentional, negligent, reckless and/or violated standards of ethics and decency,” the criticism states.
Kardashian, who’s finding out to grow to be a lawyer, started her activism in prison justice round 2017 when she realized in regards to the case of Alice Marie Johnson, who was serving a life sentence for a nonviolent drug offense. In 2018, the celbrity efficiently lobbied then-President Trump to grant Johnson clemency.
She has since continued to advocate on inmates’ behalf, together with for the Menendez brothers, who she believes must be resentenced and launched.