'It's a Miracle Day': Trump Commutes Life Sentence of Alice Johnson After Kim Kardashian Meeting
President Donald Trump has commuted the sentence of Alice Marie Johnson, a grandmother who was serving a life sentence on drug charges, days after meeting with celebrity Kim Kardashian West who lobbied for Johnson's clemency. The 63-year old former inmate was sent home Wednesday, June 6.
Alice Johnson, who already served more than 21 years behind bars after being convicted for a drug trafficking conspiracy, would have died in prison if not for the intervention of reality star Kim Kardashian West, who personally met with president Trump to plead on her behalf.
"Ms. Johnson has accepted responsibility for her past behavior and has been a model prisoner over the past two decades," the White House said in a statement announcing the clemency, as quoted by NBC News.
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"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," the statement, as delivered by the White House press secretary Sarah Sanders, continued.
A commutation of a prison sentence, as granted by a clemency, does not undo the criminal conviction, as The Guardian pointed out. Hence Johnson will still have a criminal record since she did not get a pardon, albeit with a severely reduced sentence in this case.
Johnson was given a mandatory life sentence plus 25 years back in 1997 for being involved in a cocaine distribution operation. She caught the interest of West after appearing in a video where she shared her story behind bars.
As West reached out to Mic, the media outlet that published the video, she expressed her concern that a first-time, nonviolent offender gets sentenced to a life in prison without the hope of parole.
She then took the case up along with her personal attorney, Shawn Chapman Holley, to look at the possibility of a clemency petition. Before meeting with the president, West had already spoken several times with White House senior adviser Jared Kushner over the past few months.
Just a few days after the high-profile meeting with Trump, West and Johnson were able to celebrate her release. "BEST NEWS EVER!!!!" West posted on Twitter to celebrate the clemency.
No one is happier about Trump's decision than Johnson herself. "I feel like my life is starting over again," she said. "It's a miracle day," she added.
"I'm free to hug my family," Johnson went on to say. "I'm free to live life. I'm free to start over. This is the greatest day of my life. My heart is just bursting with gratitude," she gushed, saying that she wanted to thank president Trump for giving her a new chance at life.
