In a recent interview with TODAY, ex-inmate Alice Johnson said that she went into a “full-fledged Pentecostal holy dance” when she found out she’d be getting out of prison thanks to Kim Kardashian West.
Johnson was sentenced to life in prison without parole in 1997 for her role in a nonviolent multi-million dollar drug trafficking ring in the Memphis area. After she had served for 22 years, Kim Kardashian West caught wind of her story, and became passionately obsessed.
So moved by Johnson’s story, West petitioned Ivanka Trump for a meeting with the President. Months later, West was in the Oval Office.
“It became this mission that I just didn’t want to give up,” she told TODAY. “I think to some people it may seem like, ‘Okay, Kim made a phone call to the President.’ We had been in talks and working on this for 7 months. And it wasn’t an instant thing.”
Trump, moved with compassion, pardoned the sentence, and Johnson was freed on June 6.
Though working to free her for the past seven months, the day before the TODAY interview was the first time that Johnson and West met face to face.
During the interview, Johnson showed West what she keeps in her Bible — a photo of Kim and her husband, Kanye. She said that she prays for the couple all of the time.
“Thank you is not big enough,” The 62-year-old said, when asked how she plans to thank West. “I think I have to walk it out and live it out for her, my family and the supporters.”
