While many people are championing Kim Kardashian West for successfully lobbying President Donald Trump to grant clemency to Alice Marie Johnson, others are upset that it took star power to do so and many others still remain behind bars unjustly.
Alice Johnson is a 63-year-old grandmother who was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1997 on money laundering and drug conspiracy charges, her offenses. Her case became national news last year, and many were saddened when she was not amongst those released in December 2016 when former President Barack Obama granted clemency to hundreds of similar nonviolent offenders.
Kardashian-West took on Johnson's case, working with her attorney Shawn Holley, Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner. Eventually, she met with Donald Trump who granted Johnson's release.
Rep. Steve Cohen of Tennesee has been working on legislation to free and help more people like Johnson, and while he's happy to see her out, he noted that the way in which it happened sets a bad precedent.
"It should be done based on the inequity of your sentence and not the star power of your sponsor," Cohen said as he spoke about the matter with TMZ. "There should be a system where anybody's in jail for a victimless crime like that, served x amount of years should be out! Home free, done!"
Source: tmz.com
