Cyntoia Brown Research Paper

In recent readings about Cyntoia Brown, who according to Willingham, previously was a victim of human sex trafficking, is now serving a life sentence for murder. The source reports that Brown suffered from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, grew up in an abusive home and ran away from her adoptive parent’s house prior to becoming involved in prostitution in Nashville. She was staying with different people and using drugs and alcohol. As a runaway, she then met a 24-year-old pimp named "Cut Throat," who eventually began physically and sexually abusing her, and forced her into prostitution according to Willingham. The article states that 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.

She said, “She resisted his advances until he appeared to reach under the bed. She thought he was going to get a gun, or do something to harm her." She then said she took a gun out of her purse and shot Allan. The source then continues to go on, that 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. She was only sixteen when she was convicted of these crimes. The source then concludes to say, the convictions she acquired carried concurrent life sentences plus eight additional years. Brown's life sentence caught criticism in Tennessee, and in 2012, a US Supreme Court ruling offered her an advocates new hope. The Supreme Court decision banned mandatory life without parole for juveniles, stating it was unconstitutional. However, Brown's conviction does carry the possibility of parole when she turns 69 years old