Kim Kardashian Begs Greg Abbott to Save Death Row Inmate

Kim Kardashian is pleading with Texas Governor Greg Abbott to save a death row inmate.

Ivan Cantu was convicted in 2001 for the murders of his 27-year-old cousin James Mosqueda, and Mosqueda’s 22-year-old fiancée, Amy Kitchen. However, the Texas native has always claimed to be innocent, insisting that a rival drug dealer framed him for the killings.

Cantu is set to be executed by lethal injection on Wednesday, but Kardashian has been speaking out on the 51-year-old’s behalf.

On January 25, the reality star shared Cantu’s story to X, formerly Twitter, with her post receiving over 3.4 million views.

The 41-year-old, who has been training to become a lawyer like her father Robert Kardashian, also shared a petition for Cantu’s release on Friday.

“Ivan has 5 days to live,” she wrote. “Please sign the petition to demand that Collin County DA Greg Willis request to withdraw the execution date.”

With Cantu’s execution date less than 24 hours away, Kardashian has now appealed to Governor Abbott for a delay.

“Texas Gov Greg Abbott is last resort for 30 day reprieve for Ivan Cantu, set to die on Wednesday, Feb 28,” she said in a statement shared to her Instagram Stories on Tuesday. “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.”

The Kardashians’ star encouraged her 364 million Instagram followers to text 66366 immediately, telling them to write “SAVE” in the message.

Newsweek has reached out to Kim Kardashian and Greg Abbott for comment via email.

Following the murders of Mosqueda and Kitchen, police discovered jeans with droplets of the victims’ blood in Cantu’s trash can, as well as keys to the couple’s home and Kitchen’s car.

Amy Boettcher—Cantu’s ex-fiancée—told police that Cantu had killed the couple, NBC 5 reports. She was the prosecution’s key witness in the case, along with her brother, Jeff Boettcher, who claimed that Cantu told him he planned to murder Mosqueda and asked him for help with the “clean up.”

A gun with Cantu’s fingerprints and Mosqueda’s blood on the barrel was also found at Amy Boettcher’s home. However, Cantu’s attorney, Gena Bunn, claims the Boettchers lied during the trial.

Amy Boettcher passed away in 2021. However, her brother recanted his testimony in 2022, claiming he’d been on drugs at the time and the conversation with Cantu “never happened.”

“Absent the largely unimpeached testimony of the Boettchers, it is unlikely that Mr. Cantu would have been convicted,” Bunn observed in court documents petitioning for Cantu’s exoneration.

Cantu isn’t the only person behind bars that Kardashian has lent her time and influence to.

Since 2018, the American Horror Story actress has helped to free at least 17 prisoners. However, not all of her efforts have been successful.

In 2019, Kardashian campaigned to free death row inmate Kevin Cooper.

Cooper was convicted for the 1983 Chino Hills Massacre. New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof called attention to the case in 2018, suggesting Cooper received an inadequate defense and could be exonerated by new DNA testing methods.

“I had an emotional meeting with Kevin Cooper yesterday at San Quentin’s death row,” Kardashian said on X. “I am hopeful that Kevin will be exonerated since DNA testing has now been ordered on Kevin’s case and I remain grateful to Governor Newsom for ending capital punishment in California.”

However, a state-ordered investigation into the case found “the evidence of Cooper’s guilt is extensive and conclusive.” He remains on death row.

In 2022, Kardashian worked with TV producer Lori Rothschild Ansaldi to free Kevin Keith.

Keith was sentenced to death for triple homicide after a 1994 shooting in Bucyrus, Ohio, but his sentence was later commuted to life without parole.

Ansaldi and Kardashian released a podcast on the case, The System, but Keith remains in jail and the surviving victims of the shooting condemned the project.