Why are both the DNC and RNC putting convicted felons as their spokespeople? (cocaine, drug)

[Toyman at Jewel Lake]

I can't help but notice that both the DNC and RNC had convicted felons at their conventions promoting their party and candidates. Since when did criminals become an appealing selling point for either political party?

The RNCs choice was a woman with a life sentence for her position in a violent cocaine trafficking organization. She was eventually released from prison when Trump commuted her sentence in 2018.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Marie_Johnson

The Democrats chose a rapist, torturer and murderer as their spokesperson. Donna Hylton was a prostitute that kidnapped, tortured, raped and murdered a gay man when she was 21, and was released from prison after 26 years. She appeared at this years Democratic convention, promoting Joe Biden. (Ironically she was sentenced to less time than the drug trafficker, but that's another story).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donna_Hylton


What the hell is wrong with this country when BOTH parties seem to think that criminals somehow are a face to promote the party and appeal to the American people?

[Retroit]

I believed that Alice Johnson is being used effectively by the RNC as an “in-your-face” preemptive counterattack against liberals who claim that Republicans don’t care about black people, especially those incarcerated for “innocent” drug use.

You see, it puts the Democrats in a tough spot. They know they have to criticize everything Trump does, but how do they criticize this?