Kim Kardashian’s Effort to Grant Clemency to Alice Johnson

On Wednesday, President Trump commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, who is a nonviolent drug offender, has been serving life in prison for 21 years. The decision has been made a week after Kim Kardashian West pleaded her case in a meeting with Trump at Oval Office.

According to the A.C.L.U, Alice Marie Johnson has been imprisoned since 1996 on charges of cocaine distribution, possession, money laundering, conspiracy to structuring a monetary transaction, part of a drug ring in Memphis over a period of years.  Kim Kardashian West first knew about the case through a viral video on social media before she reached out to Jared Kushner and tried to advocate for Alice Johnson. This case is the sixth time Trump granted clemency since he took office, the second one after a celebrity appealed to him.

Alice Johnson has been released from prison later Wednesday.

“Ms. Johnson has accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has been a model prisoner over the past two decades. Despite receiving a life sentence, Alice worked hard to rehabilitate herself in prison, and act as a mentor to her fellow inmates,” the White House said in a statement announcing the commutation on Wednesday afternoon. “While this administration will always be very tough on crime, it believes that those who have paid their debt to society and worked hard to better themselves while in prison deserve a second chance.”

Kardashian West expressed her gratitude on Twitter: “BEST NEWS EVER!!!”

“Her commutation and forthcoming release is inspirational and gives hope to so many others who are also deserving of a second chance,” Kardashian West said.

When Johnson reunited with her family again after two decades, she finally uttered after an emotional outburst, she was “free to live life and free to start over”.

Jared Kushner has been making much efforts in transformation and reformation of harsh criminal justice policies against the resistance of Jeff Sessions and the Justice Department as he claimed in his portfolio as a senior adviser to the President.

The Justice Department’s declination to make any comments ads another layer to the inconsistency of the viewpoints among advisers in the White House on the clemency of this case.