Who Is Cyntoia Brown? Child Sex Trafficking Victim Jailed Since 2004

Cyntoia Brown was sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for shooting and killing a man, who paid her for sex while she was just 16 years old. Now, Cyntoia’s life story has come up in the news again as Fox 17 Nashville published a new report on Brown's life in prison last Thursday, Nov. 16. After the publication of the report many celebrities joined the rallying cry to free the girl.

The Fox report featured a video from Dan Birman, a professor at University of Southern California's Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism who has been showcasing Brown's story and also has been pushing for justice. Birman has been familiar with Brown for 14 years and made a documentary, “Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story,” about her life.

According to Fox 17, Brown achieved an associate degree from Lipscomb University and is currently working on a bachelor's degree, while she has also been working as an unpaid consultant for the Juvenile Justice system.

On Nov. 21, Tuesday, a picture with a caption detailing Brown's harrowing life of repeated rape in the sex-trafficking underworld went viral since it was posted and shared Rihanna, T.I. and Kim Kardashian, who attempted to refocus the attention on what many see as unjust punishment for a girl who had an unthinkable childhood.

"Imagine at the age of 16 being sex-trafficked by a pimp named "cut-throat," the Instagram post featuring a picture of Brown from filmmaker Daniel Birman's 2011 documentary following her case read.

"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," the post adds.

"The system has failed. It’s heart breaking 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," Kim Kardashian wrote in her tweet sharing the same picture of the girl.

Several social media users also posted following the celebrities' support with the hashtag "#FreeCyntoiaBrown" in order to call for the young woman's freedom.

The post by the celebrities went on to say that Brown was tried as an adult in Tennessee for killing a 43-year-old man named Johnny Mitchell Allen, after he solicited her for sex. Brown was found guilty of murder and prostitution and was sentenced to life in prison. Brown is not eligible for parole until she turns 69 years old.

In Birman's documentary and more recently this last Thursday, he revealed insights into Brown's life detailing how she suffered physical, sexual and verbal abuse for years.

"We started the conversation (with Brown being) a young girl who's at the tail end of three generations of violence against women," he told Tennessee's Fox17 Nashville. "She had no chance."

During her trial in 2004, the girl had testified that she was choked, beaten and raped frequently at her home and threatened at gunpoint. Her lawyers tried to argue during her trial that this kind of environment and the trauma that she had been suffering as a child was what led her to shoot Allen after he paid her for sex.

Since Birman's documentary, the laws in Tennessee have changed and now it states that a person has to be 18 years or older to be charged for prostitution and children are automatically considered to be the victim in sex trafficking cases. Brown is currently 29 years old and has already served 13 years of imprisonment.

A petition was started on MoveOn.org which is aimed at Brown's freedom through a presidential pardon and it has beencurrently circulating online. It's garnered more than 176,000 signatures to date.