Moment tearful Alice Johnson is reunited with family after life sentence commuted by President Trump following Kim Kardashian campaign

Chloe Chaplain7 June 2018

There were emotional scenes in Alabama on Thursday after a grandmother was released from prison after 20 years following a high profile campaign fronted by Kim Kardashian West.

Footage showed a tearful Alice Johnson, 63, running towards her emotional family with her arms wide open before embracing them.

Ms Johnson had spent more than two decades behind bars, serving life without parole for non-violent drug offences.

But President Donald Trump decided to end her sentence after saying she had been a model prisoner and worked hard to rehabilitate herself.

Joyful: The grandmother ran towards her family after being released
© WVTM13

She was released hours after the White House announcement and ran into her family members' arms.

Kardashian West, who visited the White House last week to press the case, tweeted to say it was the “best news ever”.

Michael Scholl, a member of Johnson's legal team, said she was released just before 6 pm from federal prison in Aliceville, Alabama.

Reunited: Alice Johnson seen sprinting into the arms of her waiting family in Aliceville, Alabama
© WVTM13

"Everybody was crying and hugging," Mr Scholl said.

"I'm just so thankful. I feel like my life is starting over again," Ms Johnson said moments after her release, calling Kardashian West an "angel" and thanking Mr Trump "for giving me another chance at life and restoring me to my family."

The commutation does not erase Ms Johnson's conviction, but it ends her sentence.

Kim Kardashian met with the president to discuss the case last week (Twitter)
Donald J. Trump

Mr Trump's decision comes amid a flurry of recent pardons issued by the president.

He says he's considering a long list of other clemency actions for those famous and not, including former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who is serving 14 years in prison for corruption, and celebrity homemaker Martha Stewart, who served about five months on charges connected to an insider trading case.

The president appears to favour cases that catch his attention - because they've been championed by friends, celebrities or conservative media, or involve people he sees as rivals.

Shawn Holley, Kardashian West's attorney who accompanied her to the White House last week, said the reality star was the one who broke the news to Johnson on Wednesday in what she described as "the most wonderful, emotional and amazing phone call with Alice, Kim and Alice's lawyers."

"Once Alice's family joined the call, the tears never stopped flowing," Holley said in a statement.

Kardashian West described the moment via Twitter, writing: "Telling her for the first time and hearing her screams while crying together is a moment I will never forget."

Freed: Alice Johnson is seen sprinting into the arms of her waiting family
© WVTM13

In a statement announcing the president's decision, the White House said Johnson "has accepted responsibility for her past behaviour" and had been a model prisoner, working hard to rehabilitate herself and serve as a mentor to fellow inmates.

"While this Administration will always be very tough on crime, it believes that those who have paid their debt to society and worked hard to better themselves while in prison deserve a second chance," said a statement from the office of White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders.

Ms Johnson was convicted in 1996 on eight criminal counts related to a Memphis-based cocaine trafficking operation involving more than a dozen people.

The 1994 indictment describes dozens of deliveries and drug transactions, many involving Ms Johnson.

Federal courts rejected her appeals despite records showing she had a motion pending for a reduction in her sentence.

Prosecutors argued the sentence was in accord with federal guidelines based on the large quantity of drugs involved.

Kardashian West visited the White House last month to meet with Mr Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, who is overseeing the administration's push to overhaul the nation's prison system. She also met with the president in the Oval Office, a photograph of which the president posted on Twitter.

Kardashian West thanked the president and his team and said Johnson's commutation "is inspirational and gives hope to so many others who are also deserving of a second chance."

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