Attorney-in-training and SKIMS entrepreneur Kim Kardashian has made headlines in recent years for advocating for the early release of non-violent offenders from prison, and also for advocating for sentence commutation for death row prison inmates. Now, she has dropped a podcast very much in the same theme of prison reform, entitled, Kim Kardashian’s The System: The Case of Kevin Keith.
Although the eight episode series just dropped its first on October 3, it is already mired in controversy. Two of Kevin Keith’s victims say they were never contacted at all by Kim or her team to shed light on exactly how convicted-murderer Keith brutalized them.
Speaking with The Daily Mail, Quanita and Quentin Reeves, who were two of the six people shot by Keith in 1994, said, “[Kim] did not contact us, not one time. If Kim Kardashian wants to get involved, she should come and meet us face-to-face.”
Quentin continued, “We saw it with our own eyes. You don’t forget something like that. I don’t care what Kim Kardashian says — Kevin did it.”
Both Quanita and Quentin (who were six and four at the time) were shot in the stomach by Keith, and say that Kim’s attempt to exonerate their assailant shows a lack of interest in the facts.
“Why doesn’t Kim Kardashian come out here to Ohio? She doesn’t want to hear from us,” Quentin told the outlet. “She wants to get him out to make her look better… that's the truth.”
Quanita said, “We should have been the first call. Kevin gets to sit in jail and become a celebrity. Meanwhile we're out here dealing with this our entire lives... it's crazy.”
However, the production team behind the podcast released a statement to TMZ saying that they did reach out to the Reeves but were rebuffed.
“The production team of The System made multiple attempts to reach out to the Reeves siblings. At the time, they decided not to share their story and requested we no longer contact them. If they have reconsidered, we welcome them to sit down for the podcast at any time.”
Kim, for her part, makes it clear that she believes Keith, who was convicted by an all-white jury of triple-homicide, is innocent. As she says directly to Keith in the first episode, “I’m really hopeful for this podcast, just to get your story out there because I think it’s so important for people to understand that … our system is so f–ked up.”
“The case of Kevin Keith is deeply twisted and incredibly heartbreaking from all sides,"she says in a promo for the show, which also includes a brief clip of a conversation between herself and Keith.
At press time, Kimberly hasn’t addressed the backlash.