Crime

Black attorney responsible for freeing 17 inmates sets the record straight over Kim Kardashian

DEFENDER NEWS NETWORK — Kim Kardashian has been making headlines as of late after reports said she is responsible for freeing 17 inmates in 90 days. but what hasn’t been highlighted are the Black women doing the work behind the effort. That changed Tuesday when attorney Brittany K. Barnett, who along with fellow Black woman lawyer MiAngel Cody, established the 90 Days of Freedom Campaign, posted a lengthy post on Facebook that set the record straight.

Published

6 years ago

May 17, 2019

Oakland Post

By Defender News Service

Kim Kardashian has been making headlines as of late after reports said she is responsible for freeing 17 inmates in 90 days, but what hasn’t been highlighted are the Black women doing the work behind the effort.

That changed Tuesday when attorney Brittany K. Barnett, who along with fellow Black woman lawyer MiAngel Cody, established the 90 Days of Freedom Campaign, posted a lengthy post on Facebook that set the record straight.

Kardashian is involved in the project, having financially backed it, but Cody and Barnett have been putting in the groundwork to free 17 men who had been serving life in prison on federal drug cases.

“The first and last time I will speak on it. Seriously, because the negativity from today is misdemeanor s— and we still have lives to save,” Barnett’s post began. “MiAngel Cody and I have BEEN doing this work for FREE. Ask any of our dozens of clients who are now free living their best lives. Both of us left six figure salary jobs and wiped out our own savings accounts to fund our work. We attempted to get grants from these large foundations shelling out MILLIONS of dollars to other organizations but would not look our way because they so-called don’t fund “direct services”. Our hands were full picking locks to human cages, we didn’t have time to participate in glorified begging from the nonprofit industrial complex only to be turned down.”

“Kim linked arms with us to support us when foundations turned us down,” Barnett continued. “We and our clients and their families have a lot of love for her and are deeply grateful for her. In 90 days TWO black women lawyers freed SEVENTEEN people from LIFE W/O PAROLE sentences – the second most severe penalty permitted by law in America. Only two of us. Prosecutors opposed nearly every single case we had. We litigated our asses off in federal courts across the country. We won DOWNWARD DEPARTURES in most of our cases – due to good lawyering. People set to DIE in prison – are now FREE.”

Barnett went on to explain the clients she and Cody worked to free were not even included on a selective list issued by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, which is an agency established to address widespread disparity in federal sentencing. She also blasted the “drama” involved in the criminal justice reform arena.

Still, the lawyer is appreciative of Kardashian’s involvement in their efforts and blasted those who took aim at the reality star, who made headlines for helping get clemency granted for federally imprisoned great-grandmother Alice Johnson last year.

“We need Kim’s support and the support of anyone else who wants to join this fight,” she concluded. “We love that she is using her platform to raise awareness. We ain’t trying to be famous, we trying to get our people free. Period.”

In response, several commenters praised Barrett for her and Cody’s efforts.

“Brittany K. Barnett, actual facts and supreme truth. Your heart and works are monumental!”

“Amen, Now that’s Gangsta.”

“Keep doing what you good at .God put this fight on your heart Job well done.”

This article originally appeared in the Defender News Network.

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Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

5 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Bo Tefu

California Assembly Passes Bill to Strengthen Penalties for Soliciting Minors

The revised version of Assembly Bill 379, authored by Assemblymember Maggy Krell (D-Sacramento), now allows prosecutors to file felony charges against adults who solicit sex from a 16 or 17-year-old, provided the accused is three or more years older than the minor. If the offender is within three years of the minor, the charge would remain a misdemeanor.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 19, 2025

Oakland Post

iStock.

By Bo Tefu, California Black Media

The California State Assembly has agreed to amend a controversial bill that would increase penalties for adults who solicit sex from minors ages 16 or 17, following a wave of criticism from Republicans and concerns raised by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“From a prosecutor’s standpoint, this bill strengthens California law and gives us the felony hammer to prosecute the creeps that are preying on teenagers,” Krell said in a statement supporting the amended bill.

The new amendments also include provisions for a state grant program aimed at improving the prosecution of human trafficking and sex trafficking cases, as well as a support fund for survivors partially funded by increased fines on businesses that enable or fail to address human trafficking.

The bill faced significant opposition last week after the Assembly removed a provision that would have treated solicitation of 16 and 17-year-olds as a felony for all offenders.

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BOOK REVIEW: The Afterlife of Malcolm X

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

Published

2 weeks ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: by Mark Whitaker, c.2025, Simon & Schuster, $30.99, 448 pages

Who will remember you in fifty years’ time?

A handful of friends – at least those who are still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and around the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three men accused of the crime didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.”

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that White America “’needed his voice even more than Blacks did.’”

But though Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential on its beginning. He never knew of the first Kwanzaa, or the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes.

He was a “touchstone” for a president …

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also a fact that it’s somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life, his legacy, or is it a “murder mystery”?

Turns out, it’s all three, but the storylines are not smooth. There are twists and tangents and that may take some getting used-to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed in this book, to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it’s a big part of this book, and it’s essential for readers to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy, but it adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in a while, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”

For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.