Alice Marie Johnson: Mandatory minimum sentences must be struck down

Alice Marie Johnson, who was granted clemency by President Trump last month, called for mandatory minimum sentences to be struck down on Thursday.

“These mandatory minimums must be struck down,” Johnson told Hill.TV’s Buck Sexton and Krystal Ball on “Rising.”

“There must never be a time that a non-violent first offender like myself can receive the harshest sentence next to the death penalty…life without the possibility of parole. You’re saying that my life is not redeemable,” she continued.

Johnson was sentenced to life imprisonment on nonviolent drug and money laundering charges.

“When people hear ‘without the possibility of parole’ they think that I must have committed some heinous crime to have received some executed sentence of death, but that’s not the case, and so the whole structure of prison must be relooked at,” she continued.

She had been expected to be released in December 2016, when former President Obama granted clemency to 231 people, however, her case was passed over.

Reality television star Kim Kardashian West brought the case to Trump’s attention during a White House visit in May.

Trump granted clemency to Johnson in June.

Kardashian West and others have cited the fact that Johnson was under financial duress when she committed her crimes, along with the fact that Johnson had a non-violent past, as reasons she deserved to be granted clemency.

— Julia Manchester