After spending 13 years in prison, a victim of sex-trafficking is gaining celebrity attention on social media as celebrities like Rihanna and Kim Kardashian use the hashtag #FreeCyntoiaBrown in her support.
The system has failed. It’s heart breaking to see a young girl sex trafficked then when she has the courage to fight back is jailed for life! We have to do better & do what’s right. I’ve called my attorneys yesterday to see what can be done to fix this. #FreeCyntoiaBrown pic.twitter.com/73y26mLp7u
— Kim Kardashian West (@KimKardashian) November 21, 2017
Cyntoia Brown, now 29, was 16 when she shot and killed 43-year-old real estate agent Johnny Mitchell Allen, who hired her as a prostitute in Tennessee in 2004. After rejecting her claim of self-defense, the jury found Brown guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery.
According to Charles Bone, a Nashville attorney who took Brown’s case pro bono seven years ago, she will not be eligible for parole until she is at least 67.
“We were very, very appreciative of the fact that such an incredible number of celebrities would join our plea,” said Bone. “She was thrilled by the fact that people really cared.”
Brown’s mother, also a victim of rape, testified to drinking a fifth of whiskey a day during her pregnancy. Brown was proved to have suffered Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder which slows her brain development. According to the Tennessean, Brown was raped multiple times during her childhood and for years was in and out of the custody of the Department of Children’s Services. After being adopted by a family in Clarksville, Tenn., Brown dropped out of elementary school and ran away to Nashville.
When she was 16, Brown lived in a motel, where was forced into prostitution by her 24-year-old physically and sexually abusive boyfriend known as “Kut Throat.”
“He would explain to me that some people were born whores, and that I was one, and I was a slut, and nobody’d want me but him, and the best thing I could do was just learn to be a good whore,” she testified, according to the Associate Press.
On Aug. 6, 2004, Allen picked Brown off the street in his truck and drove her to his home. According to Brown, he layed down with her but didn’t sleep, instead consistently getting up to hover over her. Brown saw Allen reach under his bed. Believing him to be reaching for a gun, she pulled a .40-caliber handgun from her purse and shot him in the head, according to police reports. Before leaving, she took money and two guns.
In 2011, Brown was the subject of a PBS documentary called “Me Facing Life: Cyntoia Story,”a film produced by Daniel H. Birman, documenting Brown’s case from the week of her arrest up to her conviction almost six years later. The film was seen by Bone in 2012, influencing him to join Brown’s case and urging for a new trial where Brown could testify on her own behalf.
After getting her G.E.D., Brown received her associate degree from Lipscomb University, hoping to earn a bachelor of arts degree by next year.
State Representative Jeremy Faison, a Republican from Nashville, visited Brown in 2015 on a friend’s recommendation. He has since urged for her early release.
“I was amazed at the person I met,” Faison said. “She was kind, intelligent, she had a disposition or presence about her that was just amazing.”
Jeff Burks, who prosecuted Brown told Fox 17 in Nashville on Tuesday that Brown shouldn’t be considered a victim.
“There has been a group of people who have wanted to make Ms. Brown a victim and a celebrity since this happened,” Burks told Fox 17. “She was not ‘trafficked’ nor was she a ‘sex slave.’ It’s not fair to the victim and his family that the other side of this case is so seldom heard.”
The Tennessean reports that since 2014, at least 24 states have taken measures requiring an automatic review of life sentences imposed on teens after they serve a certain number of years. These years range from 15-40 years after being sentenced.
Faison introduced a bill in the state legislature in 2016, that would require review of life sentences for juveniles. It was defeated.
“We’re hopeful that either the court or the legislature or ultimately the governor will consider her case favorably and shorten her sentence as much as possible,” Bone said.
A habeas corpus petition is pending in the Court of Appeals, though her lawyers are still at a standstill. If passed, Brown could have her sentence reviewed at age 31 or 36. However, as of now, Brown’s case continues to go viral on social media with hopes that #FreeCyntoiaBrown will spark changes in the system.
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