The Case of Cyntoia Brown, Who Murdered a Man as Teen After Being Forced Into Prostitution
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http://people.com/crime/cyntoia-brown-case-sex-trafficking-murder-prostitution/
She has been behind bars for more than 13 years, but on Monday, interest in the story of Cyntoia Brown was reignited when celebrities like Kim Kardashian West and Rihanna shared a viral post about her controversial case by a filmmaker who made a documentary about it.
Brown, now 29, was a 16-year-old victim of sex trafficking in Tennessee in 2004 when she fatally shot Johnny Mitchell Allen, a 43-year-old real estate agent who solicited sex from her, according to court documents and multiple local reports. Brown — who admitted she killed Allen by shooting him in the back of the head — becomes eligible for parole soon after she turns 69.
Here are four things to know about Brown’s case.
1. Brown Had a Traumatic Childhood and Was in State Custody for Years
Nothing was normal about Brown’s upbringing. According to the Tennessean, she was raped multiple times during her childhood after being born to an alcoholic mother, who admitted during her trial to drinking heavily while Brown was in the womb.
The paper further reports that Brown had been in and out of the custody of the Department of Children’s Services “for years.”
Brown said she was forced to prostitute by a boyfriend who essentially became the underage girl’s pimp, taking the money that she would make. She claimed she shot Allen in self-defense because she allegedly saw him reach for his gun.
Cyntoia Brown
Ricky Rogers /The Tennessean/AP
2. A Documentary Has Been Made About Brown’s Case
In 2011, Brown was the subject of a PBS documentary called Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story. The film was produced by Daniel H. Birman, who documented Brown’s case from the week of her arrest until her conviction almost six years later. (Birman’s social media post went viral.)
The film rekindled interest in Brown’s case. Charles Bone, a Nashville attorney, saw the film in late 2012 and decided to join Brown’s attorneys on the case. They argued for a new trial in which Brown would be allowed to testify on her own behalf — something her attorneys in her 2006 trial advised against.
After her arrest, Brown waived her Miranda rights and gave statements to Nashville police in which she described the incident in detail. Brown claimed she did not know who Allen was before he solicited her for sex. After driving to his home, she alleged he showed her his guns before they got into his bed together. Subsequently, she said, he reached underneath his bed for what she thought was a gun, so she pulled a .40-caliber handgun out of her purse and shot him.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Brown said she took money from Allen’s wallet and took two guns before driving his truck to a nearby Walmart parking lot.
The jury rejected her claim of self-defense and found her guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree felony murder and especially aggravated robbery.
Cyntoia Brown
Shelley Mays/The Tennessean via AP
3. Brown’s Incarceration Has Legislators Rethinking Life Sentences for Minors
Monday was not the first time people have spoken out about Brown’s sentence. In fact, there is a movement afoot to amend the laws in Tennessee, which may provide Brown a chance at early release.
According to the Tennessean, which has covered the Brown case extensively, advocates for a change in the law cite scientific studies showing that adolescents lag behind adults in development of the parts of the brain that regulate aggression, abstract thinking and long-term planning. In addition, advocates cite research on the impact of early childhood trauma on brain development.
The paper reports that since 2014, at least 24 states have enacted new measures requiring an automatic review of life sentences imposed on teens after they have served a certain number of years — ranging from 15 to 40 years after sentencing.
Efforts are underway in Tennessee to change the law to require teens sentenced to life get a mandatory 15- or 20-year review of their sentences. If passed, Brown could have her sentence reviewed at age 31 or 36. Last year, advocates in Tennessee failed to pass a bill that would have required a review of a life sentence by the original sentencing court after 15 years.
4. Celebrities Are Speaking Out in Defense of Brown
Kim Kardashian West and Rihanna both shared Birman’s post on social media Monday. It featured an image of Brown, and a statement about her case.
“Imagine at the age of 16 being sex-trafficked by a pimp named ‘cut-throat.’ After days of being repeatedly drugged and raped by different men, you were purchased by a 43-year-old child predator who took you to his home to use you for sex. You end up finding enough courage to fight back and shoot and kill him.”
Rapper T.I. and actress Cara Delivigne have also used their platforms to shine new light on the case, and are calling on lawmakers to intervene. Kardashian West vowed in a social media post that she would have her attorneys look into Brown’s conviction to see if anything can be done to help her.
The movement has inspired the hashtag #FreeCyntoiaBrown on Twitter.
She has been behind bars for more than 13 years, but on Monday, interest in the story of Cyntoia Brown was reignited when celebrities like Kim Kardashian West and Rihanna shared a viral post about her controversial case by a filmmaker who made a documentary about it.
Brown, now 29, was a 16-year-old victim of sex trafficking in Tennessee in 2004 when she fatally shot Johnny Mitchell Allen, a 43-year-old real estate agent who solicited sex from her, according to court documents and multiple local reports. Brown — who admitted she killed Allen by shooting him in the back of the head — becomes eligible for parole soon after she turns 69.
Here are four things to know about Brown’s case.
1. Brown Had a Traumatic Childhood and Was in State Custody for Years
Nothing was normal about Brown’s upbringing. According to the Tennessean, she was raped multiple times during her childhood after being born to an alcoholic mother, who admitted during her trial to drinking heavily while Brown was in the womb.
The paper further reports that Brown had been in and out of the custody of the Department of Children’s Services “for years.”
Brown said she was forced to prostitute by a boyfriend who essentially became the underage girl’s pimp, taking the money that she would make. She claimed she shot Allen in self-defense because she allegedly saw him reach for his gun.
Cyntoia Brown
Ricky Rogers /The Tennessean/AP
2. A Documentary Has Been Made About Brown’s Case
In 2011, Brown was the subject of a PBS documentary called Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story. The film was produced by Daniel H. Birman, who documented Brown’s case from the week of her arrest until her conviction almost six years later. (Birman’s social media post went viral.)
The film rekindled interest in Brown’s case. Charles Bone, a Nashville attorney, saw the film in late 2012 and decided to join Brown’s attorneys on the case. They argued for a new trial in which Brown would be allowed to testify on her own behalf — something her attorneys in her 2006 trial advised against.
After her arrest, Brown waived her Miranda rights and gave statements to Nashville police in which she described the incident in detail. Brown claimed she did not know who Allen was before he solicited her for sex. After driving to his home, she alleged he showed her his guns before they got into his bed together. Subsequently, she said, he reached underneath his bed for what she thought was a gun, so she pulled a .40-caliber handgun out of her purse and shot him.
• Want to keep up with the latest crime coverage? Click here to get breaking crime news, ongoing trial coverage and details of intriguing unsolved cases in the True Crime Newsletter.
Brown said she took money from Allen’s wallet and took two guns before driving his truck to a nearby Walmart parking lot.
The jury rejected her claim of self-defense and found her guilty of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree felony murder and especially aggravated robbery.
Cyntoia Brown
Shelley Mays/The Tennessean via AP
3. Brown’s Incarceration Has Legislators Rethinking Life Sentences for Minors
Monday was not the first time people have spoken out about Brown’s sentence. In fact, there is a movement afoot to amend the laws in Tennessee, which may provide Brown a chance at early release.
According to the Tennessean, which has covered the Brown case extensively, advocates for a change in the law cite scientific studies showing that adolescents lag behind adults in development of the parts of the brain that regulate aggression, abstract thinking and long-term planning. In addition, advocates cite research on the impact of early childhood trauma on brain development.
The paper reports that since 2014, at least 24 states have enacted new measures requiring an automatic review of life sentences imposed on teens after they have served a certain number of years — ranging from 15 to 40 years after sentencing.
Efforts are underway in Tennessee to change the law to require teens sentenced to life get a mandatory 15- or 20-year review of their sentences. If passed, Brown could have her sentence reviewed at age 31 or 36. Last year, advocates in Tennessee failed to pass a bill that would have required a review of a life sentence by the original sentencing court after 15 years.
4. Celebrities Are Speaking Out in Defense of Brown
Kim Kardashian West and Rihanna both shared Birman’s post on social media Monday. It featured an image of Brown, and a statement about her case.
“Imagine at the age of 16 being sex-trafficked by a pimp named ‘cut-throat.’ After days of being repeatedly drugged and raped by different men, you were purchased by a 43-year-old child predator who took you to his home to use you for sex. You end up finding enough courage to fight back and shoot and kill him.”
Rapper T.I. and actress Cara Delivigne have also used their platforms to shine new light on the case, and are calling on lawmakers to intervene. Kardashian West vowed in a social media post that she would have her attorneys look into Brown’s conviction to see if anything can be done to help her.
The movement has inspired the hashtag #FreeCyntoiaBrown on Twitter.
http://www.newsweek.com/prosecutor-who-helped-keep-cyntoia-brown-prison-quit-after-case-720324
PROSECUTOR IN CYNTOIA BROWN CASE QUIT AFTER LEARNING HE HELPED KEEP HER IN PRISON
BY CHRISTAL HAYES ON 11/22/17 AT 6:15 PM
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U.S.CYNTOIA BROWN
Cyntoia Brown, the teen whose life-sentence is at the center of a social media firestorm, completely changed the life of one of the prosecutors who helped keep her in prison—and got him to quit.
Preston Shipp was a longtime litigator for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office but also taught free classes at the Tennessee Prison for Women. That’s where he met Brown, according to the Nashville Scene.
The pair grew close and her tenacity and smarts set her apart from the other students. Shipp started to doubt his profession while teaching the inmates and felt many of these women wanted to redeem themselves and instead were forced to spend a life behind bars because the state’s system didn’t allow the chance for them to go free—at least not until they served 51 years.
Keep Up With This Story And More By Subscribing Now
Then one day as Shipp was going through letters, he stumbled upon an old legal opinion and saw it was for Brown’s case—a discovery that left him in disbelief, the Nashville Scene reported.
It led to him making a change in his life and never looking back.
“I never thought I would befriend a defendant from one of my cases. In the judicial process class I taught at the prison, we studied various approaches to criminal justice: retributive, rehabilitative and restorative. Between my friendship with Cyntoia and the curriculum I was teaching, I felt compelled to make a change in my career,” Shipp said. “It became impossible for me to be a cog in the wheel of a strictly punitive system.”
Related: Cyntoia Brown wasn’t a victim, stole money after killing Johnny Allen: Prosecutors
Brown’s case has resurfaced online and with it came support from social justice advocates and celebrities such as Rihanna and Kim Kardashian. Brown, 16 at the time, killed a man who’d paid her for sex.
Brown said it was self-defense, but a jury didn’t believe her story and instead sentenced her to a life behind bars. Brown never took the stand; her tragic backstory is filled with abuse, rape and forced prostitution.
Rihanna saw Brown’s story and posted about it on Instagram, saying the teen was repeatedly “drugged and raped by different men” who purchased her, and the man she killed was a child predator who took her to his home to use her “for sex.”
“Something is horribly wrong when the system enables these rapists and the victim is thrown away for life,” Rihanna wrote.
While the case is not as black-and-white as Rihanna made it sound in the post, many online have jumped to defend Brown and use her life sentence as a prime example of the problems with juvenile sentencing. In fact, Shipp agrees with this point.
Shipp now works at Board of Professional Responsibility, which is a watchdog organization that supervises the ethical conduct of attorneys. He has also become a criminal justice reform advocate, who has written pieces in the Huffington Postarguing for changes in the juvenile justice system.
PROSECUTOR IN CYNTOIA BROWN CASE QUIT AFTER LEARNING HE HELPED KEEP HER IN PRISON
BY CHRISTAL HAYES ON 11/22/17 AT 6:15 PM
SHARE
U.S.CYNTOIA BROWN
Cyntoia Brown, the teen whose life-sentence is at the center of a social media firestorm, completely changed the life of one of the prosecutors who helped keep her in prison—and got him to quit.
Preston Shipp was a longtime litigator for the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office but also taught free classes at the Tennessee Prison for Women. That’s where he met Brown, according to the Nashville Scene.
The pair grew close and her tenacity and smarts set her apart from the other students. Shipp started to doubt his profession while teaching the inmates and felt many of these women wanted to redeem themselves and instead were forced to spend a life behind bars because the state’s system didn’t allow the chance for them to go free—at least not until they served 51 years.
Keep Up With This Story And More By Subscribing Now
Then one day as Shipp was going through letters, he stumbled upon an old legal opinion and saw it was for Brown’s case—a discovery that left him in disbelief, the Nashville Scene reported.
It led to him making a change in his life and never looking back.
“I never thought I would befriend a defendant from one of my cases. In the judicial process class I taught at the prison, we studied various approaches to criminal justice: retributive, rehabilitative and restorative. Between my friendship with Cyntoia and the curriculum I was teaching, I felt compelled to make a change in my career,” Shipp said. “It became impossible for me to be a cog in the wheel of a strictly punitive system.”
Related: Cyntoia Brown wasn’t a victim, stole money after killing Johnny Allen: Prosecutors
Brown’s case has resurfaced online and with it came support from social justice advocates and celebrities such as Rihanna and Kim Kardashian. Brown, 16 at the time, killed a man who’d paid her for sex.
Brown said it was self-defense, but a jury didn’t believe her story and instead sentenced her to a life behind bars. Brown never took the stand; her tragic backstory is filled with abuse, rape and forced prostitution.
Rihanna saw Brown’s story and posted about it on Instagram, saying the teen was repeatedly “drugged and raped by different men” who purchased her, and the man she killed was a child predator who took her to his home to use her “for sex.”
“Something is horribly wrong when the system enables these rapists and the victim is thrown away for life,” Rihanna wrote.
While the case is not as black-and-white as Rihanna made it sound in the post, many online have jumped to defend Brown and use her life sentence as a prime example of the problems with juvenile sentencing. In fact, Shipp agrees with this point.
Shipp now works at Board of Professional Responsibility, which is a watchdog organization that supervises the ethical conduct of attorneys. He has also become a criminal justice reform advocate, who has written pieces in the Huffington Postarguing for changes in the juvenile justice system.
I was thinking the same thing. But it looks like this one played out the same way that chick in Florida that the movie Monster (2003)was made about, did. The prostitute started killing the tricks and not the real source of her pain. I'd support letting her out if she killed the pimp. But damn, does the trick deserve death just because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time? Someone has to pay for that lost life as well.
I don't want her out in the world either...
Lord only knows how many different ways she can be triggered after a history like that
oh she definitely gonna need some counseling.
what about the poor guy that tries to date?
she ain't going to walk a block without dudes coming at her
I was about to post that pic of hers and say something...instead I’ll just “like” your comment and come off like less of a creep
....
Who is to say the trick even knew how old she was? Shoot the fucking pimp if you really a victim.
She had a gun? Wouldn't surprise me if they were jacking tricks. Jacked tricks ain't coming forward because they don't want to be ...wait for it...here it comes....it's coming...actually going to type it...'victim shamed/blamed' and lose respect or their families.
She didn't mace him. Didn't even use a knife or razor. She had a fucking .40 on her. Pimp was named 'cut throat' and she packed a .40. Sounds like quite the fucking team.
I seen this. What are the chances she can be re-tried and released?
damn, stop with the common sense. the internet wants to drive its own narrativeWho is to say the trick even knew how old she was? Shoot the fucking pimp if you really a victim.
She had a gun? Wouldn't surprise me if they were jacking tricks. Jacked tricks ain't coming forward because they don't want to be ...wait for it...here it comes....it's coming...actually going to type it...'victim shamed/blamed' and lose respect or their families.
She didn't mace him. Didn't even use a knife or razor. She had a fucking .40 on her. Pimp was named 'cut throat' and she packed a .40. Sounds like quite the fucking team.
Fucked up I was thinking the same thing. Niggas need help smh.
i don't think it would have went down like it did had she not stolen the guns and a vehicle from the scene. that made it looked questionable.
Some of you can't be Black folk born and raised in America. Just smh @ supporting the wonderful state of Tennessee locking her up for at least 51 years. What kind of dumbass can't tell they're fucking an underage chick especially a girl her size at that time? With a pimp like hers, it's easier to strike out at softer targets aka her tricks than the source of her troubles, aka her pimp who had her mentally chained. Why do you think we CONSTANTLY fight and accuse each other for problems brought on by Jim Crow type system we live in right now?
Some of yall saying shoot the pimp, I don't think the thought even crosses their minds to do that. They are so deeply in fear of him and the mind fuck they get, he is their biggest fear and idol in their life that he is placed on a pedestal.
Hence another reason they go after minors, easier to manipulate.
Hence another reason they go after minors, easier to manipulate.
I see where you are coming from on that but it is called mind control. Some years back gorilla pimping started taking over. Fear is the most effective form of mind control.
I checked out some of the responds from her case. I do know anything about the pimp or the person that was shot. When I lived in Reno Nevada I lived with a lady that was working as a maid at the Hilton hotel and casino. But she was prostituting on the side. It took a little over 2 years for me to find out that she was physically and spiritually hooked up with important and powerful people. In fact my being with her put me in a game that I did not know about. There are important and powerful people involved with things like this on a level that regular people do not know about.
The important and powerful people have certain type of people to provide them what they secretly want. But this system has certain ways of controlling and keeping these things going on while controlling the ones that are involved. There has been to many men trapped up in this programming and end up in prison. They go in walking and come out switching. Once you get involved in the game it is always about staying on the side of or in favor of the ones winning. It is possible that she may not be telling everything. And it may be possible that she cannot tell everything.
It is a lot can be said about this. But higher up than any of the stuff I have ever been involved in there is a whole lot more going on such as Dynacorp trafficing women and little girls all over the world for sex and if they get caught instead of any punishment they are rewarded with more government contracts. Or the protection of the person that raped and killed Lavena Johnson.
The important and powerful people have certain type of people to provide them what they secretly want. But this system has certain ways of controlling and keeping these things going on while controlling the ones that are involved. There has been to many men trapped up in this programming and end up in prison. They go in walking and come out switching. Once you get involved in the game it is always about staying on the side of or in favor of the ones winning. It is possible that she may not be telling everything. And it may be possible that she cannot tell everything.
It is a lot can be said about this. But higher up than any of the stuff I have ever been involved in there is a whole lot more going on such as Dynacorp trafficing women and little girls all over the world for sex and if they get caught instead of any punishment they are rewarded with more government contracts. Or the protection of the person that raped and killed Lavena Johnson.
Exactly what I think and tell anyone that thinks they can make a difference from within that system. Cops, judges, attorneys, etc.
You are a gear in a machine designed to destroy me & everyone that looks like me.
Where you see her tiddies?
Second postWhere you see her tiddies?
Reading some other articles, her mom drank when she was having her which led to her not being all right upstairs or mentally challenged. So was easier to to pimp her out. She had many priors before this as well.
Then also saw that the dead guy's hands were found under his head, like he was asleep and he was shot in the back of his head. So was he really sleeping when she shot him and was just trying to rob him?
Sad story all around. She was no angel, but being a minor and that 51 yr mandatory sentence is BS. Even 15-45 yrs as a reduction is crazy.
There's got to be some other system in place other than a life of prison and get out and can't work anywhere but probably to get back into what put you in prison in the first place.
Then also saw that the dead guy's hands were found under his head, like he was asleep and he was shot in the back of his head. So was he really sleeping when she shot him and was just trying to rob him?
Sad story all around. She was no angel, but being a minor and that 51 yr mandatory sentence is BS. Even 15-45 yrs as a reduction is crazy.
There's got to be some other system in place other than a life of prison and get out and can't work anywhere but probably to get back into what put you in prison in the first place.
I gotta wonder if you guys would be this sympathetic if the victim had been your father, brother, son, best friend, etc. Ya'll don't seem to think this guy's life had any value to anyone. He's dead and someone has to pay for that. I think 5 decades is a bit harsh. But I can assure you that if my loved one was blown away like that I'd be pissed if the killer got painted as a poor, pitiful, victim that simply didn't know any better because of her fucked up history. I do believe that a lot of black criminality is due to racism and systemic mistreatment by whites but I still think all those victim/perpetrators need to be locked up. Virtually every black person in this country has been mistreated by white people but the vast majority of us don't run out and commit crimes as a reaction to that mistreatment. My issue with this fucked up justice system has never been locking up too many blacks. The problem is not locking up enough whites that commit the same damn crimes!
To me it seems that she may be doing time because of the person she killed. Then again we do not know the whole story. If she is a stranger in his place why would he be showing her his guns?
But we know that because of how the story was posted on here it nobody is going to be sympathetic about the person killed. They say she was 16 years old but in that picture she looks younger than that.
I was only stating on that comment of why she killed the john instead of the pimp. I still have not seen any video of her or the boyfriend or the person she shot. I have not seen any pictures of the person she shot or the boyfriend.
Are you familiar with the malaika griffin case. She killed a white dude. No one saw her do the killing also.
Not familiar with the Malaika Griffin case. How does it compare? Similar out comes? Similar demographics?