President Donald Trump on Wednesday commuted the sentence of Alice Johnson, the 63-year-old Tennessee woman who was sentenced to life in prison in 1996 on non-violent drug charges.
“BEST NEWS EVER!!!!” tweeted Kim Kardashian West, who met at the White House last week with the president and his senior adviser and son-in-law Jared Kushner to lobby the commander-in-chief to give Johnson a break.
The White House later issued a statement on the commutation.
“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 statement read.
The statement also quoted the warden at the prison where she had been locked up, Arcala Washington-Adduci,
“Since [Johnson’s] arrival at this institution, she has exhibited outstanding and exemplary work ethic. She is considered to be a model inmate who is willing to go above and beyond in all work tasks,” the warden said.
“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 concluded.
Johnson told the website Mic that she got involved in drug trafficking because she was broke and had suffered through a series of tragedies.
She had lost her job at FedEx because of a gambling addiction, her son was killed in a motorcycle accident and her marriage had ended in divorce.
CNN reported earlier Wednesday that Trump was preparing to pardon as many as 30 convicted felons.
Source: New York Post
