Cyntoia Brown launched After 15 Years In prison For homicide
Cyntoia Brown, who served 15 years of a life sentence for killing a person when she turned into 16, has been launched from a Nashville jail, Tennessee officers introduced early Wednesday.
Earlier this yr, then-Gov. Bill Haslam took the unusual step of granting Brown clemency for what he called a "tragic and complex case," a major victory for Brown and her supporters, who for years have maintained that the 2004 killing changed into an act of self-defense.
Over time, the combat for Brown's release has delivered distinguished legal professionals to her defense, a PBS documentary and backing from celebrities which include Kim Kardashian West and Rihanna. Her case also inspired the advent of state law geared toward protective minors who're victims of sex trafficking.
In 2006, Brown was convicted of aggravated robbery and primary-degree homicide for killing forty three-12 months-old actual estate agent Johnny Allen, whom she went domestic with after he picked her up for sex at a Sonic force-In in Nashville.
She instructed police that she pulled a pistol out of her purse and fatally shot Allen due to the fact she thought he changed into accomplishing for a gun.
She then fled with Allen's guns and money. She drove away in his pickup truck.
Prosecutors claimed that Brown shot Allen as part of a plan to rob him, however Brown instructed police she turned into appearing to protect herself. She turned into convicted and sentenced to lifestyles in prison over the killing.
The U.S. Very best court has dominated that obligatory life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders aren't constitutional, but Tennessee prosecutors successfully argued that Brown would technically come to be eligible for parole after fifty one years, in 2055.
Brown, now 31, became amongst greater than a hundred and eighty inmates serving life sentences within the kingdom for crimes they devoted as young adults.
She never testified during her trial, however during her appeals procedure, Brown, who had been a teenage runaway, took the stand and defined how at the time of the killing, she became ensnared in an abusive courting with a drug supplier referred to as cut Throat who compelled her into prostitution.
Her case won new scrutiny with the upward thrust of the #MeToo motion, as her supporters drew attention to the case the use of the hashtag #FreeCyntoiaBrown. Crook justice reform advocates portrayed Brown's case as an instance of the unreasonable incarceration of a youngster who become a sufferer of intercourse trafficking.
"Did we by hook or by crook exchange the definition of #JUSTICE along the manner??" Rihanna asked in a 2017 Instagram submit about Brown that obtained nearly 2 million likes. "The gadget has failed," Kardashian West tweeted.
At the same time as incarcerated, Brown earned her GED, completed a bachelor's diploma and mentored at-chance children.
"Transformation ought to be observed by wish," Haslam stated when commuting her sentence to parole in January.
On Tuesday, the country wide girls's law middle celebrated the lengthy criminal war that caused Brown's launch, however with a cautionary note.
"we're satisfied Cyntoia has finally been freed — but we must now not forget that she in no way must were in prison within the first place. We ought to maintain to seek justice for survivors like her," the organization said on Twitter.
Her writer introduced that Brown will release a memoir in October to be able to describe her stressful formative years, how she transformed her life from at the back of bars and the occasions that brought about her murder conviction and eventual launch.