Cyntoia Brown was 16 years old she killed a Tennessee real estate agent who solicited her for sex, for which she was sentenced to life in prison. Though there haven’t been significant changes to her case’s basic details since her first trial in 2006, celebrities and advocates are turning a light on Brown’s story and sex trafficking with the viral social media campaign,After running away from home, Brown lived with her 24-year-old boyfriend who, she has said, abused her, raped her, threatened to kill her and forced her into a life of drug use and sex work. “He would explain to me that some people were born whores and that I was one, and I was a slut, and nobody wants me but him, and the best thing I could do was learned to be a good whore,” Brown testified at a 2012 …show more content…
To each of you responsible for this child’s sentence I hope to God you don’t have children because this could be your daughter being punished for punishing already!”A petition was started to urge Governor Bill Haslam to grant Brown clemency. As of Sunday afternoon, more than 379,000 people have signed it.Attorney Charles Bone, who began working for Brown pro bono after watching Birman’s film, told NBC that the young woman is “shocked and surprised” that celebrities are rallying behind her, and is “appreciative” of their support.“This is meaningful not to Cyntoia, but to the cause of sex trafficking and sex slavery and juvenile justice,” Bone said. He said that he and a team of lawyers are still fighting for another trial, in which Bone believes Brown would be “charged with second-degree murder at the most.”He said that the lesser charge “would put her in a situation now where she would be qualified to be considered for parole.”“She was sentenced as a child, and that she was a sex slave and the pimp she was living with was trafficking her is worthy of not celebrities but all of us,” Bone told BuzzFeed News.