Mom blasts Kim Kardashian's support of 11-year-old's convicted killer: ‘My opinion of her is about as low as it goes’

Erin Donnelly
·Yahoo Life Senior Editor
Updated

Kim Kardashian, who is credited with helping to convince President Trump to grant Alice Marie Johnson clemency, is now throwing her support behind another inmate — much to the disappointment of the mother of the 11-year-old boy he was convicted of murdering.

Television personality Kim Kardashian poses at the premiere of "The Promise" in Los Angeles, California U.S., April 12, 2017. REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni
Kim Kardashian has expressed support for the exoneration of Kevin Cooper. (Photo: REUTERS/Mario Anzuoni)

On Saturday, the reality star, who is studying to become a lawyer, tweeted her support for Kevin Cooper, who is on death row at California’s San Quentin State Prison. Cooper was convicted of the 1983 murders of Doug and Peggy Ryen; their daughter, Jessica; and their 11-year-old neighbor, Christopher Hughes. The boy was having a sleepover at the Ryens’ Chino Hills, Calif., home and was killed with a hatchet; the Ryens’ 8-year-old son survived the attack.

But, having read up on the case and met with Cooper, whom she described as “thoughtful and honest,” Kardashian feels that he is “innocent of the crimes for which he was convicted.” She noted that DNA testing has been ordered for his case, and is “hopeful” that he is exonerated.

While Kardashian has been lauded for advocating for prison reform, including successfully lobbying for the abolishment of the death penalty in California, her call for Cooper to be cleared has sent the family of Christopher Hughes reeling.

"It makes me feel sick to my stomach and I pity her,” his mother, Mary Ann Hughes, said in an interview with TMZ. “For what she's doing to us, there's nothing to justify what she's doing to us, the immense pain she is causing us."

Hughes also doubted Kardashian’s understanding of the case and said Cooper’s legal team was “using her for her reality show status.”

"[She] obviously has not read all of the actual evidence — she has bought into half-truths perpetrated by the defense. If she actually sat down and read the transcripts of all the trials and appeals, she would be sick to her stomach to be in the same room with him."

She went on to cite the testimony of a woman who alleged that Cooper raped her in 1982.

"She portrays herself as being for women's rights and for the women's movement and yet she is supporting a rapist and a murderer,” Hughes told TMZ.

She added that Kardashian has not been in contact with her family.

“I would not even want to talk to her,” Hughes said. “My opinion of her is about as low as it goes because of what she's putting my family through ... dragging this through the press on a non-stop basis."

Kardashian has not yet publicly responded to Hughes’s interview, she does appear to be keeping up with her legal studies. On Sunday, she hit the books instead of live-tweeting Keeping Up With the Kardashians.

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