Over the last two weeks, social media feeds have been filled with references to Cyntoia Brown thanks to celebrity interest in her case. Brown, 29, is currently in prison in Tennessee where she is serving a sentence for murder.
Brown is serving a life sentence for the murder of a Nashville man in 2004. According to Brown, after a childhood marked by abuse and drugs, she was raped and forced into prostitution by a pimp, and ended up killing one of her clients out of self defense when she was just 16 years old. Despite her youth, she was tried as an adult and given a life sentence.
The details of her crime and trial -- including the fact that the man who had paid for sex with her was 43 years old, have started circulating again, catching the attention of A-list celebrities and spawning the viral hashtag #FreeCyntoiaBrown. However, even before the renewed interest, her trial inspired a documentary and was a factor in a major change in how the state of Tennessee deals with child prostitution cases.
Brown’s life is one long history of pain and suffering. She was born to a mother who admitted that she drank a fifth of whiskey every day of her pregnancy. She was adopted and later ran away after dropping out of elementary school. It was at age 16 that she met and started living with a pimp who forced her into prostitution.
On August 7, 2004, Brown testified she was solicited for sex by 43-year-old Johnny Mitchell Allan, who picked her up near a Sonic parking lot and drove her back to his house. There, she testified, she saw a gun cabinet in Allan's room. She said she resisted his advances until he appeared to reach under the bed. Brown said she thought he was "gonna get a gun or is gonna do something to me." She then said she took a gun out of her purse and shot Allan.
During her trial, the prosecution argued that the motive for the killing was not self-defense, as Brown claimed, but rather robbery, since Brown took Allan's wallet after she shot him. She was tried as an adult and convicted of first degree murder, first degree felony murder and aggravated robbery. The convictions carried concurrent life sentences and eight additional years.
We can’t know what Brown’s mindset was at the time. And for those of us who have never experienced those kinds of traumatic life circumstances, its impossible to imagine being the age of a high school junior and living with a pimp who is forcing you to sell your body to men much older than you. But what we can have some empathy for her lost childhood. And we can wonder why, as a juvenile offender, she was forced into life sentences plus additional time, though we can make some guesses since she is a poor, young woman of color. Brown won’t be eligible for parole until she is 69 years old. What kind of society are we that throws away young people, even when they do unspeakable things, forever?
In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that life sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional, and advocates are trying to change the law in Tennessee. One lawmaker, State Rep. Jeremy Faison, a Republican from Nashville, introduced a bill to “require reviews of life sentences for juveniles after they serve 15 years in prison. It was roundly defeated.”
For her part, Brown has been a model inmate and used her time in prison as best she could.
After getting her G.E.D., she got an associate degree from Lipscomb University, a private Christian college in Nashville that teaches classes at the prison. She hopes to earn a bachelor of arts degree by next year, [Charles Bone, her pro bono attorney] said.
This is an issue that even fair-minded Republicans can get on board with. Here’s what Rep. Faison had to say about Brown:
“I was amazed at the person I met,” he said. “She was kind, intelligent, she had a disposition or presence about her that was just amazing.”
He described Ms. Brown as “extremely remorseful,” but said she also thinks “it was unjust what had happened in her life, and what a 40-year-old man was doing to her.”
What do you think? Should Brown spend the next 40 years in prison? Of course, with the current administration, its unlikely that she will receive any mercy. But perhaps with enough advocacy and a change in state law, she may be entitled to a case review or a new trial.