Kim Kardashian pays tribute to death row inmate executed by lethal injection

29 February 2024 , 09:05

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Ivan Cantu, 50, was put to death, despite his lawyer's attempts to reopen his case (Image: CNN)

A Texas death row inmate who was given a lethal injection after being convicted of murdering his cousin and his cousin's girlfriend has an unlikely ally - Kim Kardashian.

Ivan Cantu, 50, was executed on Wednesday for the November 2000 fatal shooting of his cousin, James Mosqueda, 27, and his cousin’s girlfriend, Amy Kitchen, 22. He had long claimed his conviction was based on false testimony and questionable evidence.

“I want you to know that I never killed James and Amy,” he told relatives and a friend of Ms Kitchen who stood feet away from him while watching through a window. “And if I did, if I knew who did, you would’ve been the first to know any information.”

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Kim Kardashian paid tribute to the Texas death row inmate (Ron Sachs/CNP/AdMedia / SplashNews.com)

He said he wanted them to know he didn’t think his death “will bring you closure. If it does, if this is what it takes or have any reservations off in your mind, then so be it.” His time of death was recorded as 6.47pm, according to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.

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His death prompted a huge outcry of support from celebrities including Kim Kardashian who believes he was framed for the double killing in 2000 and that new evidence would have proven his innocence. Kim, who is training to be a lawyer, wrote to her hundreds of millions of followers on Instagram, that she believed Cantu was "an innocent man."

"Ivan Cantu was executed. Someone I believe is an innocent man. My prayers go out to his family and loved ones and everyone involved," she wrote.

Kim's outspoken support for Cantu garnered widespread media attention in January, when she first posted about Cantu and his case using a picture of the incorrect Ivan Cantu — she shared instead a photo of a New York businessman who has no relation to the death row inmate or the case.

Kim Kardashian pays tribute to death row inmate executed by lethal injection

One of the last photos of Ivan and his mum Sylvia

Her post was removed, and she quickly replaced it with a message aimed at Texas Governor Greg Abbott asking him to delay Cantu's execution as she also called upon her Texas-based fans to contact his office or that of the Department of Corrections to advocate for a stay on the killing. Up until the moment of his death, Cantu's supporters were trying to suspend the execution so that the inmate could argue he was deprived of a fair trial.

Prosecutors had said Cantu killed Mosqueda, who dealt illegal drugs, and Kitchen as he tried to steal cocaine, marijuana and cash from his cousin’s north Dallas home. The inmate, who was convicted in 2001, had long claimed a rival drug dealer killed his cousin in a dispute over money.

Before his statement, his spiritual adviser, Helen Prejean, held in her hand his right hand that was strapped to the death chamber gurney and prayed quietly over him. He thanked friends and supporters and urged that his case continue to be investigated to prove, “I don’t belong on this gurney.”

Murder victims Amy Kitchen and James Mosqueda

As a lethal dose of the sedative pentobarbital began flowing, he began snoring. After the eighth snore, which was accompanied by a gasp, he stopped all movement. Twenty-one minutes after the drugs started, he was pronounced dead.

Cantu’s was the first execution in Texas this year and one of two scheduled Wednesday in the U.S. Hours earlier, Idaho authorities halted the execution of serial killer Thomas Eugene Creech after a medical team repeatedly failed to find a vein to insert an IV line needed to administer a lethal injection. Creech was condemned for killing a fellow prisoner with a battery-filled sock in 1981.

The Texas execution proceeded hours after Cantu’s attorney, Gena Bunn, said she would not make a final appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court for lack of “a viable path” for the high court’s consideration of the case.

Cantu was previously scheduled to be executed in April 2023, but that killing was cancelled. The convict has continued to maintain his innocence even as Collin County District Attorney Greg Willis, whose office convicted Cantu back in 2001, has continued to assert his belief that Cantu is guilty, adding that no new evidence presented would alter "the cornerstones of the State's case."