A woman who said she killed a man who paid to have sex with her has been set free after 15 years in prison.
Cyntoia Brown, 31, was released from a Nashville prison Wednesday after Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam granted her clemency earlier this year. Her case became a cause for celebrities like Rhianna and Kim Kardashian who lobbied on her behalf. She was also the focus of a PBS documentary.
In 2006, when she was 16 years old, Brown was convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery for killing 43-year-old real estate agent Johnny Allen. She told police that she thought Allen, who picked her up for sex at a Sonic Drive-In, was reaching for a gun when she pulled a pistol from her purse and shot him, fleeing in Allen’s pickup truck with his guns and money.
Prosecutors argued that Brown killed Allen as part of a plot to rob him. Brown’s attorneys argued that she was acting in self-defense.
Brown, who was a teenage runaway, testified during her appeals process that she was forced into prostitution by a drug dealer named “Cut Throat,” with whom she was also in an abusive relationship.
While serving nearly half her life in prison, Brown earned her GED, a bachelor’s degree, and mentored at-risk youth.
Haslam called it a “tragic and complex case” when he granted her clemency in January.
“Transformation should be accompanied by hope,” Haslam said.
“With God’s help, I am committed to live the rest of my life helping others, especially young people. My hope is to help other young girls avoid ending up where I have been,” Brown said in a January statement.
“We’re glad Cyntoia has finally been freed — but we must not forget that she never should have been in prison in the first place. We must continue to seek justice for survivors like her,” the National Women’s Law Center said on Twitter following her Wednesday release.
Brown is slated to release a memoir in October documenting her childhood trauma, the killing, and how she transformed her life.
