Kim Kardashian speaking in Columbus in January during a panel on Ohio inmate Kevin Keith sponsored by the Ohio State University chapter of the Ohio Innocence Project.

Kim Kardashian is well-known for her social media influence and the reality television show “The Kardashians,” which started its fourth season last month.

But you may not know about her advocacy for criminal justice reform and wrongful convictions.

So what does Kim Kardashian have to do with Ohio and convicted murder and inmate Kevin Keith?

Kardashian advocated for inmate Kevin Keith in podcast

In January of this year, Kardashian participated in a panel discussion during a rare visit to Columbus about Keith, who was convicted in a triple slaying in Bucyrus in 1994. Three others were wounded.

The panel discussion, held in Downtown Columbus at the Capital Square Sheraton Hotel, was organized by Ohio State University’s chapter of the Ohio Innocence Project, and included members of Keith’s legal counsel along with Lori Rothschild Ansaldi, a producer in Los Angeles who specializes in true-crime stories, who is making a documentary about Keith and his family.

Kardashian said at the event that Keith’s case for his innocence and his family’s quest for justice has compelled her to get involved in his case.

“Because there was so much wrong with justice in this particular case,” Kardashian said in January. “I wanted to really show people that might not have a law degree that might not understand how messed up our justice system really is.”

Kardashian first took an interest in Keith’s case in July 2019 and in October launched a podcast, “The System,” to focus on wrongful convictions. In the podcast, she explores Keith’s alibi and interviews a journalist, Keith’s brother, his attorney and others.

The podcast has eight episodes and is available on podcasting platforms.

In August, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals denied Keith’s fourth appeal that the prosecution failed to turn over exculpatory evidence before trial. The federal statute bars consideration of these claims unless Keith can show that no reasonable juror today would convict him in light of the “evidence as a whole.”

Kevin Keith

The Sixth Circuit ruled that Keith cannot show that and affirmed his convictions.

The Ohio Parole Board recommended against clemency for Keith in January

Keith grew up in Canton and is a former McKinley High School football star.

He was convicted in 1995 for the Feb. 14, 1994 slayings in a Bucyrus apartment that police called a revenge killing over drugs. The victims were Marichell Chatman, 24; her 4-year-old daughter, Marchae; and Chatman’s aunt, Linda Chatman. Three others, including two children, survived their wounds.

Keith, who lived in nearby Crestline, was awaiting trial on a drug trafficking charge when his mugshot was identified as the suspect by a surviving witness to the triple murders. However, the witness told police that the shooter’s face was partially covered by a scarf. Another child in the apartment, who also was wounded, told investigators that the shooter was a friend of her father’s — not Keith.

A Crawford County jury found Kevin Keith guilty of the killings and he was sentenced to death. But in September 2010, then-Gov. Ted Strickland commuted Keith’s sentence to life without parole. Keith has unsuccessfully appealed his sentence many times.

Keith has maintained his innocence.