AUSTIN—On Saturday, Feb. 29, Alice Marie Johnson will speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in Fort Washington, Maryland.
Johnson, now a Senior Fellow with the Texas Public Policy Foundation, was sentenced in 1996 to a mandatory life sentence plus 25 years without the possibility of parole for her role in a nonviolent federal drug case. This was her first and only conviction ever. Her story received world-wide attention when reality star and business mogul, Kim Kardashian West advocated for her release from prison.
On June 6, 2018, President Donald J. Trump granted clemency to Alice Marie Johnson and the world watched as she ran across the street into the arms of her family.
She is now an effective advocate for criminal justice reform.
Johnson will be introduced at the 11:15 a.m. General Session by TPPF Board member Doug Deason, President of Deason Capital Services, LLC, which manages a diversified portfolio of public and private assets.
Deason serves on the advisory board of Valesco Industries, a Dallas based private equity fund, the executive board of The School of Engineering at Southern Methodist University (SMU), the advisory board of MD Anderson Cancer Center, and is chairman of the advisory board of The Institute for Cyber Security at SMU.
He’s an outspoken advocate for criminal justice reform in Texas and in Washington, D.C.