Credit: Disney/Hulu/The Kardashians
A round-up of every time Kim Kardashian successfully helped free someone from prison
A round-up of every time Kim Kardashian successfully helped free someone from prison
Kim Kardashian has helped free many prisoners out of jail, and is being urged to be Luigi Mangione’s lawyer as he became a suspect in the fatal shooting of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson.
The Kardashians star is known for starting out as a reality TV personality, but she’s been devoting a lot of her time to the law over the last few years. Kim Kardashian is committed to helping break prisoners free.
Kim advocated for Alice Marie Johnson’s freedom
In 1996, Alice Marie Johnson was sentenced to life imprisonment for her involvement in a drug trade. After 21 years in prison, she was granted clemency after Kim advocated for her freedom.
She held onto hope to escape for the entire time, but the 64-year-old woman was freed from prison with Kim’s help. Alice is now a criminal justice reform advocate, just like Kim.
They’ve become good friends over the last five years, but it all started when Kim wrote a tweet to millions of followers on October 25, 2017 – and Alice didn’t even know who she was at the time!
Kim visited President Trump at the White House to talk about Alice’s case, and a week later, commuted her sentence and she was soon released and united with her family.
She helped free 17 inmates in 90 days
Kim helped Brittany K. Barnett, Kardashian’s personal attorney and co-founder of the Buried Alive Project, and MiAngel Cody, lead counsel of the The Decarceration Collective, free 17 inmates in three months.
Each of the prisoners that were freed were first-time nonviolent drug offenders serving life sentences without parole. At the time, Kim was secretly funding a criminal justice campaign.
She covered the legal fees for the lawyers to travel around the country, which wouldn’t have been possible without her financial help. And Kim didn’t just pay the fees, but helped the prisoners get home.
In 2020, Kim fought for three female prisoners
Donald Trump cut short the jail sentences of Crystal Munoz, Judith Negron and Tynice Hall in February 2020, after Kim paid him another visit at the White House, two years after Alice Johnson was freed.
The women, who attended the White House visit alongside Kim, had been jailed for drug-related and white collar crimes, and all had young children when they were imprisoned.
“President Trump commuted the sentences of three really deserving women. I didn’t hear much about it in the news so I wanted to share with you their stores!” Kim tweeted.
She added: “I have the pleasure of spending the day with these women today along with @AliceMarieFree [Alice Johnson] who helped to pick these women.”
Kim helped pass the First Step Act
Along with Van Jones and Jared Kushner, Kim was instrumental in persuading President Trump to support the First Step Act, which enacted major reforms in the US prison system.
Van Jones later stated that without Kardashian, the act would have never passed because it would not have received the president’s support. It was later passed by a great majority in the US Senate.
She helped free a woman who lost her daughter
In April 2022, Kardashian advocated for the clemency of Melissa Lucio, the only woman of Hispanic descent on Texas’ death row, in a series of tweets. She had been on death row for 14 years.
She tweeted, “I recently just read about the case of Melissa Lucio and wanted to share her story with you. She has been on death row for over 14 years for her daughter’s death that was a tragic accident.”
Melissa’s daughter was two years old when she died. When Lucio was granted a stay of execution on April 25 that year, Kardashian celebrated on her social media channels.
Rapper Gunna was supported by Kim
Kim supported rapper Gunna, who is now freed but was imprisoned without bond and charged with one count of violating the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act.
In October of the same year, Gunna was again denied release from jail ahead of his January trial. In December, Gunna pled guilty to a single charge of racketeering and was sentenced to five years in prison.
After one year in jail, the rapper had the rest of the sentence suspended subject to probation conditions. He was soon released from jail, and instead was ordered to serve 500 hours of community service.
Family reunited with loved one Jeffrey
Kim funded Jeffrey Stringer’s release from a Miami prison. He was sentenced to life imprisonment for a drug offense, and served 22 years until Kim advocated for his early release.
Stringer’s family told NBC 6 they had a FaceTime call with Kim after a hearing. Jeffrey’s mother says he plans on mentoring young men in his community, to teach them not to go down the same path he did.
- NOT AGAIN: ANOTHER accident for Kim Kardashian