Source: YouTube screenshot / youtube screenshot
Cyntoia will walk out of prison next week as a free woman after having to spend her life behind
bars. On August 7, Brown will be released to parole supervision according to former Tennessee
Gov. Bill Haslam, who granted her clemency eight months ago.
31-year-old Cyntoia Brown was sentenced in connection with the killing of a Nashville man who
Brown said had solicited her for sex. Brown said that she was raped and forced into prostitution
by a pimp and ended up killing one of her clients out of self-defense. She was only 16 at the
time, but was tried as an adult and was given life in prison.
After thing Brown has been through she has still went through her prison time trying to be a
better a person. “She is light years today, as a woman, different from the traumatized 16-year-old
that she was,” Derri Smith, founder and CEO of non-profit End Slavery Tennessee, said last
January. “She’s mentoring … troubled youth, working on her college degree, she is planning a
nonprofit so she can help other young people.”
In 2015, Brown received her associate degree from Lipscomb University in 2015 and, according
to The Tennessean, obtained a bachelor’s degree in the Tennessee Prison for Women in May.
Brown is also collaborating with the Tennessee’s Juvenile Justice System to help counsel young
people at risk, and many of her supporters say she’s been a model inmate during her
incarceration.
In a documentary titled, “Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story”, she said “I learned that my life was –
– and is — not over.” “I can create opportunities where I can actually help people.”
Celebrities such as Rihanna and Kim Kardashian have come to Brown’s defense and have
supported her throughout social media. Thousands on social media have used the
#FreeCyntoiaBrown to advocate for Brown.
There has been a GoFundMe created for Cyntoia Brown to collect donations to help her
transition to life outside of prison. The Second Chance Fund” was created by
her representatives in order to give the public an opportunity to support Brown.
