Reality television star Kim Kardashian has joined forces with attorney Brittany K Barnett to free those sentenced to unfair and lengthy prison stays for low-level drug charges as part of Barnett’s project, Buried Alive, which Kardashian has been helping to fund. So far, Kardashian and Barnett have freed 17 inmates who were in jail for low-level drug offenses as part of Buried Alive’s 90 Days of Freedom Project.
Alice Marie Johnson
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Kardashian’s journey into criminal justice was spurred by the arrest of the 63-year-old grandmother from Tennessee, Alice Marie Johnson, who was sentenced to life in prison for a first-time, non-violent drug offense. Kardashian met with President Trump at the White House in June of 2018 to discuss the case of Johnson who was pardoned by Trump in July of 2018. In December of 2018 Trump signed into law the First Step Act, which allows those with nonviolent charges to earn points for good behavior and a potential early release. While far from full prison reform, Kardashian and Barnett are forcing attention to be paid to those who have been given unfair prison sentences in adherence with strict federal guidelines.
Kardashian Pays Rent
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Kardashian hasn’t stopped at funding Barnett’s Buried Alive project but has also extended her financial support to the former inmate, Matthew Charles, whom she and Barnett helped to free after serving 20 years of a 35-year sentence for non-violent drug and weapon charges. Freed once in 2016 as part of the Fair Sentencing Act, a legislation that attempted to remedy the arrest disparities between the possession of crack and powdered cocaine, Charles was forced to return to prison in 2018 after an appeals courts overturned the 2016 judge’s ruling that liberated him in accordance with the Fair Sentencing Act. It was only under Trump’s First Step Act that Charles gained sustained freedom from incarceration. However, upon being released, Charles’s attempts to find housing proved futile as his criminal background caused all his applications to be declined. Finding out about Charles’s roadblock in the path to rehabilitation, Kardashian privately contacted Charles and offered to pay his rent for the next five years.
Continued Forays Into Criminal Justice
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Others whom Kardashian and Barnett have helped to free include Jeffrey Stringer, Terrence Byrd, Jamelle Carraway and Eric Balcom, all locked away for disproportionate periods of time on low-level drug charges. The reality star and attorney duo also aided in the release of Cyntonia Brown, a former sex-slave who served 12 years for killing the man who paid her to have sex with him when she was only 16. Kardashian is also pushing for DNA testing to be done in the case of Kevin Cooper, on death row for the last 33 years for the murders of four people, including two ten-year-old children. It is thought that Cooper was framed for the crimes with which he was charged and could gain potential exoneration through a DNA test.
Kardashian, Practicing Lawyer By 2022
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Kardashian intends to keep pursuing law and is set to take the California Bar Exam in 2022. Since her successful bid to free Alice Johnson, Kardashian has registered with the California State Bar to become a fully accredited lawyer, for which she will have to complete 60 college credits as well as an apprenticeship at a law firm in San Francisco.
