Piers Morgan applauds Kim Kardashian getting Alice Johnson released

Kim Kardashian has been a diabolical role model in recent years.

For someone with over 100 million followers on social media, she’s exercised the responsibility of a greedy, grasping, publicity-ravenous and often woefully reckless imbecile.

From her absurd ‘I’m an empowered feminist’ bird-flipping topless selfies to her cynical peddling of expensive drug-themed merchandise on her website, Ms Kardashian’s proven herself to be someone who doesn’t care how badly she corrupts the minds of impressionable young people so long as the cash tills keep ringing.

Kim Kardashian has been a diabolical role model in recent years – like peddling an appetite-suppressant lollipop and flipping the bird topless on Instagram in the name of feminism 

Thus ugly trait reached a nadir a few weeks ago when she posted a photo of herself sucking on an appetite-suppressant lollipop and urged her largely female following to be ‘quick’ in buying them.

It would be hard to imagine a more harmful abuse of her power and influence.

So I’d just about had it with Kim Kardashian and her fame-crazed, ruthless, money-obsessed and morally repugnant family.

Yet today, I find myself in the curious and very unexpected position of wanting to cheer her from the rooftops.

Her successful fight to free great-grandmother Alice Johnson, 63, from prison is something everybody, regardless of your view of the Kardashians, should applaud.

Johnson is no angel.

She was jailed for life in 1996 for being part of a large cocaine trafficking ring.

Obviously, her actions in that crime warrant no sympathy.

But the severity of the sentence for someone with no criminal record who had committed a non-violent offence was staggeringly harsh.

Ms Johnson had been a model citizen until her downfall; she’d married her childhood sweetheart, had five children and for many years held down a good job as a FedEx manager.

Then came a bitter divorce, single parent Alice lost her job due to a gambling addiction, her house was foreclosed on, and her youngest son Cory was killed in a motorcycle accident.

As she herself admitted: ‘My life began to spiral out of control. No mother should have to bury her child. This weight was unbelievable and it was a burden I couldn’t sustain. I made some very poor decisions out of desperation.’

Those poor decisions involved becoming a telephone ‘mule’ for the drug traffickers, passing messages between the distributors and sellers.

She was caught and punished with a life sentence without parole for drug conspiracy and money laundering.

Alice Johnson is no angel, but the severity of her sentence was staggering

She's seen right rushing to her family after being freed

Alice Johnson is no angel, but the severity of her sentence was staggering. She’s seen right rushing to her family after being freed

In America, unlike most countries, a life sentence usually means exactly that: incarceration for the rest of your life.

The US penal system is spectacularly brutal in this regard.

I’ve interviewed many convicted murderers for various TV crime documentaries. Some thoroughly deserved to have the key to their cell thrown away. But in other cases the lack of a 2nd chance struck me as unnecessarily cruel and unforgiving.

For Alice Johnson, a woman who’d already seen her life torn apart, it represented the end of any hope or rehabilitation, of becoming again the woman she used to be.

That dreadful realisation would destroy most of us, wouldn’t it?

Yet Alice was determined to NOT let it destroy her.

For the next two decades, she devoted herself to being a good person.

She became an ordained minister and a mentor to other inmates, took educational and vocational programs, volunteered to help sick and dying prisoners and helped to coordinate the prison’s Special Olympics.

Unlike most in jail, she also accepted full responsibility for what she’d done.

Her family tried hard to get her pardoned; they got clemency recommendations from her Warden, Case Manager, Vocational Training Instructor and members of Congress, and petitioned former President Obama.

The Warden, Arcala Washington-Adduci, said: ‘Since (Ms. 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.’

Despite this glowing endorsement, the efforts failed.

I don’t blame Obama for this; there are thousands of similar cases and presidents can’t pardon everyone.

But that would have been that for Alice Johnson if Kim Kardashian hadn’t decided to take up the fight for her.

Last week, the reality star went to the White House for a meeting with President Trump specifically about the case.

The encounter was widely ridiculed.

‘TRUMP MEETS RUMP’ screamed the New York Post, summing up the general mood of the nation.

Last week she went to the White House to meet Trump about the case. The encounter was widely ridiculed and I myself initially viewed the visit as just another publicity stunt for headlines

Last week she went to the White House to meet Trump about the case. The encounter was widely ridiculed and I myself initially viewed the visit as just another publicity stunt for headlines

I myself initially viewed the whole thing as just another publicity stunt by Kim Kardashian to garner headlines.

But yesterday, just a week later, I watched a joyful Alice Johnson run free from prison after 22 years into the arms of her weeping family, and my natural cynicism about all things Kardashian instantly melted away.

Frankly, it just doesn’t matter if she did it all for self-publicity.

The end result is that an American citizen who so clearly deserved a second chance in life has now got that second chance and it’s almost entirely down to Kim Kardashian.

For once, she utilised her extraordinary global celebrity for the right reasons – shining her vast, flashing, gawdy light onto an injustice that will surely have touched the hearts of every decent American.

It even touched the heart of President Trump, thus disproving the theory held by many of his opponents that he doesn’t have one.

‘While this Administration will always be very tough on crime,’ said the White House statement announcing Alice Johnson’s sentence was being commuted, ‘it believes that those who have paid their debt to society and worked hard to better themselves while in prison deserve a second chance.’

Yes, they do; and few more so than Alice Johnson.

It was Kim Kardashian herself who broke the news to Alice that her sentence was being commuted with immediate effect.

‘Hearing her screams while crying together is a moment I will never forget,’ she tweeted afterwards. ‘Her commutation is inspirational & gives hope to so many others who are also deserving of a second chance. I hope to continue this important work by working together with organizations who have been fighting this fight for much longer than I have, and deserve the recognition.’

Kim  herself broke the news to Alice that her sentence was being commuted - and her tweet was tinged with a rare bit of humility

Kim herself broke the news to Alice that her sentence was being commuted – and her tweet was tinged with a rare bit of humility

Fine words, and tinged with rare Kardashian humility too.

Alice Johnson said: ‘She (Kim) could have just read an article or whatever and said ‘Oh that’s a shame” and went on with her life. But she didn’t. She chose to get involved in a major way.’

Yes, she did.

And as a result, Alice Johnson is now free.

I’ve been one of Kim Kardashian’s biggest critics, but today, I salute her.

I just hope it encourages her to do more of this and less of the coarse, attention-seeking nudity nonsense. 

The ‘RUMP’ came through with ‘TRUMP’ and deserves both our congratulations and gratitude. 



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