Kim Kardashian sued for slander after misidentifying man as death row inmate

Kim Kardashian has been hit with a lawsuit after drawing attention to the case of a death row inmate – and sharing a photo of the wrong man in the process.  © REUTERS

The 43-year-old reality star, who has emerged as an influential advocate for criminal justice reform, posted about death row inmate Ivan Cantu last February.

In an Instagram story, Kim urged her followers to sign a petition to halt his planned execution.

But as it turned out, the photo of Ivan that the SKIMs mogul attached to the post wasn't the right Ivan Cantu.

It was instead a man from New York with the same name, and that Ivan has now taken legal action over the mix-up, per TMZ.

A lawsuit filed Thursday accuses Kim of libel and slander and claims that the post subjected the project manager "to public embarrassment, shame, hatred, ridicule, disgrace, contempt and aversion."

Michael Rhodes, an attorney representing Kim, told Us Weekly that the post was a "simple mistake".

"The image was taken down almost immediately once the error was discovered. We'd prefer to solve this without litigation, but of course will defend Kim as needed," he added.

At the time of Kim's post, Ivan called her out for using the wrong photo, writing via Facebook, "To all my friends and family, some idiot who runs @kimkardashian used my picture instead. ofIvan 'Abner' Cantu," per TMZ.

The Kardashians star quickly replaced the image with the correct one, but it seems Ivan is looking for more from Kim after the blunder.