Will Kim Kardashian help Kendrick Johnson get justice, 7 years after 17-year-old was found dead in school gym?
On June 6, reality TV star Kim Kardashian West had retweeted the details of three cases involving the deaths of black people, these are the cases that many people have been demanding to be reopened and investigated. People have been seeking justice for Kendrick Johnson, a 17-year-old high-schooler, and Tamla Horsford, a 40-year old mother of five children. Kim also tweeted about Albert Winston, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison after a 17-year-old white girl accused him of raping her after spending an evening at the nightclub with him.
Kardashian recently shared a petition on her page demanding Johnson's case be reopened. Johnson was found dead at the gymnasium of Lowndes High School in Valdosta on January 11, 2013. His body was rolled up in a school gym mat, standing upside down and despite the evidence, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation ruled his death an 'accident' and theorized that Johnson had fallen into the mat while looking for his shoes and died after not being able to get out. Many students at the school would use the mats in the gymnasium to store their things to avoid paying locker fees, as did Johnson, who was an athlete.
According to the petition shared by Kim, Johnson was killed after being struck with a 45-pound weight/dumbbell allegedly by his friend Brian Bell. The two constantly argued over Bell's girlfriend Taylor Eakin, who was having an affair with Johnson. Bell's father Rick was a retired FBI officer who allegedly orchestrated the removal of Johnson's organs and had them replaced with newspaper to hide evidence and other injuries. Rick then allegedly contacted another FBI agent, who remains unknown, so that he could edit the school’s surveillance video by deleting an hour and 25 minutes of the school’s original surveillance video. A second autopsy by Johnson's parents had revealed that the death of their son was not accidental and was due to blunt force trauma to the upper neck.
Kim shared another post demanding that Horsford's case be reopened too. Horsford was having a sleepover with seven white women and three white men at a home in Georgia, on November 3, 2018. The next day at 7.30 am, she was found facedown in the backyard by the homeowner's aunt but the police were only called in at 9.30 am. In an initial report, it was determined that head and neck injuries were the cause of her death. The case took a strange turn when Jose Barrera, a former probation officer who was also present at the said party, was fired for improper use of county database. He is also the boyfriend of the owner of the house where Horsford was found dead and is considered a key witness in the investigation.
Another post that was shared by Kim fleshes out the details of the Winston case. According to the post, no semen or DNA was found when a vaginal swab was carried out on the woman who accused Winston of rape. However, an all-white jury consisting mostly of women declared him guilty and carried out the sentencing.
Kim has done her bit by highlighting these three cases for now, but will she take it upon herself and help deliver justice to the families of the deceased?
In the past, Kim has been instrumental in bringing a lot of people to justice, including freeing people who have been wrongly incarcerated. Her commendable work in the criminal justice space coupled with the effort she has put in to study to become a lawyer, besides managing her other businesses, has earned her a lot of credit as someone who's truly dedicated to helping people who await justice. A documentary titled 'Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project' showcased a few cases that she was involved with. One such case was that of 64-year-old Alice Marie Johnson who was sentenced to life in prison for a non-violent drug charge. Kim was able to successfully commute the sentence after she petitioned directly to President Donald Trump.
Another case was that of 40-year-old Momolu Stewart who was sentenced to life for shooting Mark Rosebure. Stewart was 16 years old at the time of the shooting but was tried as an adult. In his time in prison, he was able to earn a GED and college credits through Georgetown University's Prison Scholars Program. Kim was able to help him walk free after petitioning for his release on grounds of his achievements in prison. Crystal Munoz, Judith Negron and Tynice Hall were few of the other convicts who Kim helped release.