Washington: US President Donald Trump on Wednesday commuted the prison sentence of a 63-year-old woman whose release had been championed by reality TV star Kim Kardashian.
Alice Marie Johnson, 63, had served nearly 22 years of a life sentence for a non-violent drug offence.
WVTM-TV in Birmingham, Alabama, later showed pictures of Johnson shortly after her release, running in happiness from a van towards family members holding flowers and waiting for her beside the road.
Kardashian, who is married to rapper Kanye West, met with Trump at the White House last week to appeal for the release of the great-grandmother convicted of cocaine trafficking. The White House said in a statement that Trump had commuted Johnson’s sentence and that she “has accepted responsibility for her past behaviour” and been a “model prisoner.”
“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.
“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,” it said.
Kardashian welcomed the commutation of Johnson’s sentence with a tweet saying it was the “BEST NEWS EVER!!!!” Following his meeting with Kardashian last week, Trump tweeted: “Great meeting with @KimKardashian today, talked about prison reform and sentencing.”
Kanye West recently raised eyebrows after tweeting about his “love” for Trump and describing him as a “brother” with whom he shared “dragon energy.”
Fixing tough sentencing laws had been a priority of former president Barack Obama’s administration, but he failed to win congressional support, prompting a stream of presidential pardons and clemency actions.
Trump has so far taken a more hardline approach, advocating a “lock-em-up-and-throw-away-the-key” approach to criminal justice.
During his first year and half in office he has issued a number of pardons, however, mostly involving high-profile cases.
Opposition Democrats say Trump’s pardons of political allies — or hints to issue them — is meant to signal to his present and former aides that they need not fear resisting the probe by Special Counsel Robert Mueller into possible collusion between Russia and Trump’s 2016 election campaign.
— AFP
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
