What about our other nonviolent inmates, Mr. Trump?
Well, what do you say when a couple of the world's most notorious, self-promoting products and exploiters of the reality TV world get together and do something undeniably nice?
Well, how about "Thank you"?
That's what I say to President Donald Trump and She-Who-Needs-No-Introduction Kim Kardashian.
As you've probably heard by now, the president granted clemency on Wednesday to Alice Marie Johnson, 63, a Tennessee grandmother who has spent the past 22 years serving a life sentence without parole for cocaine trafficking.
Unlike a full pardon, the commutation will not erase Johnson's conviction, but it will end her sentence.
Trump granted the clemency after hearing a plea from fellow reality TV star Kim in the Oval Office.
Is this legit? Yes. The pardon power belongs to whomever happens to be president. At present, that happens to be Trump.
Is Trump using Kardashian to polish his image among African-Americans, the hip-hop community and reality TV fans? Of course. Is anyone shocked by that notion? Pleasing constituents is what presidents and other politicians do.
But is that a reason for Trump to have refused her plea for clemency? Of course not. She has served more than two decades. That's a long time for a nonviolent drug offense. In the meantime, she became a model prisoner, according to various accounts. Her clemency should serve as an example to others of the possibilities that they, too, can be rehabilitated and redeemed.
Johnson, who became an ordained minister in prison and drew hundreds of thousands of signatures to a petition, has come a long way toward redemption. She was convicted in 1996 on eight criminal counts related to a Memphis-based cocaine trafficking operation. Her 1994 indictment describes dozens of deliveries and drug transactions, many involving her.
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