Kim Kardashian West just helped secure the release of another inmate from prison; this time a man who served over two decades for a low-level drug offense.
She made the announcement on Friday, May 3, on her Twitter account.
“We did it again,” she wrote to her 60 million followers. “Had the best call w/this lovely family & my attorney @msbkb who just won release for their loved one Jeffrey in Miami – he served 22 years of life sentence for low level drug case. He served too much time but it gives me so much joy to fund this life saving work.”
She added a photo of Stringer and his family members, looking thrilled to have him released.
We did it again! Had the best call w/this lovely family & my attorney @msbkb who just won release for their loved one Jeffrey in Miami – he served 22 years of life sentence for low level drug case. He served too much time but it gives me so much joy to fund this life saving work. pic.twitter.com/pbYicKmFpJ
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) May 3, 2019
Sources close to the case told TMZ that Stringer was “convicted for drug possession when he was 25,” and because he already had two previous drug charges/offenses, he “got life under the federal three-strikes law.”
However, he was able to be cleared this time because his attorney, Brittany K. Barnett, argued that Stringer should be released under the First Step Act, the bipartisan criminal justice reform law that reduced mandatory minimum sentences and allowed for more “good-time credits” for prisoners with good behavior.
Congress just passed the Criminal Justice Reform Bill known as the #FirstStepAct. Congratulations! This is a great bi-partisan achievement for everybody. When both parties work together we can keep our Country safer. A wonderful thing for the U.S.A.!!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 20, 2018
Stringer’s release follows similar work Kardashian West did in 2018, when she met with President Donald Trump in the White House to ask him to pardon Alice Marie Johnson, who was serving life in prison for drug conspiracy and money laundering.
She learned of the woman’s story in early 2018 and wrote on Twitter, “This is so unfair.”
This is so unfair… https://t.co/W3lPINbQuy
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) October 26, 2017
Johnson, a 63-year-old grandmother, was sentenced to a mandatory life sentence plus 25 years after being convicted in a drug trafficking and money laundering case. She was arrested in 1993 and has been in prison since Oct. 1996. Johnson was not eligible for parole.
Kardashian West then contacted Trump’s daughter, Ivanka Trump, who connected Kardashian with her husband, Jared Kushner—who was working on a prison reform initiative at the time. Trump eventually commuted Johnson’s sentence after Kardashian’s intervention.
Following the victory, Kardashian West tweeted: “It started with Ms. Alice, but looking at her and seeing the faces and learning the stories of the men and women I’ve met inside prisons I knew I couldn’t stop at just one. It’s time for REAL systemic change.”
It started with Ms. Alice, but looking at her and seeing the faces and learning the stories of the men and women I’ve met inside prisons I knew I couldn’t stop at just one. It’s time for REAL systemic change pic.twitter.com/kdKr8s6lJW
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) September 5, 2018
In a recent interview with Vogue, the reality TV star revealed that she’s studying to be a lawyer. She told the publication that last summer she decided to start a four-year apprenticeship with a law firm in San Francisco, with the goal of taking the bar exam in 2022.
“I had to think long and hard about this,” she said.
She told the magazine her successful advocacy work in seeking clemency for Alice Marie Johnson’s sentence inspired her career change.
“The White House called me to advise to help change the system of clemency, and I’m sitting in the Roosevelt Room with, like, a judge who had sentenced criminals and a lot of really powerful people and I just sat there, like, Oh, [expletive] I need to know more,” she explained to Vogue.
“I never in a million years thought we would get to the point of getting laws passed,” she said. “That was really a turning point for me.”
