Cyntoia Brown's gripping story of sex trafficking and murder resurfaced on social media thanks to an Instagram post put up by Rihanna, on Tuesday, November 21. Now a call has been made for the state of Tennessee to review her case, with Kim Kardashian offering up her personal attorney to fight on her behalf.
By Tuesday evening the story of Cyntoia Brown was trending on the hashtag #FREECYNTOIABROWN, and several celebs in addition to Rihanna, had vowed their support for the incarcerated 29-year-old. Brown was only 16-years-old, and still a legal minor when she was brought to the home of a 43-year-old real estate agent named Johnny Mitchell Allen. For weeks on end, Brown had allegedly been drugged, raped and abused by various men, after running away and subsequently being taken in by a pimp called 'Cutthroat.' The photo that Rihana circulated of Brown gives a brief account of her 2004 conviction for shooting Allen in the head as they lay beside one another; a move she says she made after being overcome by a fear that he was contemplating killing her.
"Did we somehow change the definition of #JUSTICE along the way??," Rihanna added in her forwarding of the message. "cause..... Something is horribly wrong when the system enables these rapists and the victim is thrown away for life." Prior to calling her lawyer to look into the case, Kardashian wrote, "The system has failed. It's heartbreaking to see a young girl sex trafficked then when she has the courage to fight back is jailed for life! We have to do better & do what's right."
Brown was tried as an adult and her team's bid to fight her case on the premise that she suffered emotional and psychological torment throughout her upbringing fell short of the prosecutor's argument that she was captured with Allen's wallet and some of his guns, and had therefore pulled off the execution with the motive of robbing him. She would be sentenced to 51-years to life on murder and prostitution charges.
Brown's case was detailed in the 2011 PBS documentary, Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story.
Source: Ebony
