The Ghetto Rhetorician

A 43-year-old man picked up a 16-year-old girl at a parking lot, paid $150 to have sex with her, and drove her to his house. She shot him in the back of the head while he slept. The court tried her as an adult. Found her guilty of first-degree murder. Sentenced her to life in prison. She wouldn't be eligible for parole until she was 67 years old. The man who bought a child for sex - he was the victim. The child who was being sold - she was the murderer. She was sixteen. Her name is Cyntoia Brown. Her biological mother was 16 when she gave birth. Drank alcohol the entire pregnancy. Cyntoia was born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder. Her mother moved on to crack cocaine. Couldn't take care of her. Gave her up for adoption. Cyntoia grew up in a loving home. But something was wrong. She couldn't stay in school. Kept running away. By 13 she was in and out of the juvenile system. By 16 she was living on the streets of Nashville. That's where she met a man who called himself "Kut-Throat." He said he was her boyfriend. He wasn't. He was her pimp. He beat her. Raped her. Gave her a gun "for protection." And every night sent her out to sell herself so he could eat. On August 6, 2004, Kut-Throat sent her to a Sonic Drive-In parking lot. A man named Johnny Allen - 43, real estate agent, former youth pastor, Sunday school teacher - pulled up and asked if she was hungry. Then asked if she was "up for any action." He paid $150. Drove her to his house. They ate dinner. Then he took her to his bedroom. Cyntoia says he kept standing over her. Touching her. She says he told her he was a military sharpshooter and showed her his gun collection. She was terrified. She believed he was reaching for a weapon. She grabbed the .40-caliber handgun Kut-Throat had given her. And shot Johnny Allen in the back of the head. She took $172 from his wallet and two of his guns. Drove away in his truck. Left it in a Walmart parking lot. Went back to the motel where Kut-Throat was waiting. The prosecutors said she wasn't scared. They said she killed him in his sleep to rob him. A neighbor told police Cyntoia said she'd been "waiting on a lick like that all week." A recorded call with her mother caught her saying she had "executed" him. She was 16. The judge ruled she'd be tried as an adult. The jury convicted her of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery. Life sentence. No parole until age 67. In prison, she earned her GED. Then an associate degree - 4.0 GPA. Then a bachelor's degree - 4.0 GPA. She became a model prisoner. She also realized for the first time that she had been a trafficking victim. She didn't understand it until her late twenties. In 2011, a PBS documentary told her story. Nobody cared. Then in November 2017 - thirteen years after the shooting - her case went viral. Kim Kardashian posted about it. Then Rihanna. Then LeBron James. Then Snoop Dogg. Then T.I. Millions of people asked the same question: why is a trafficked child serving life for killing the man who bought her? A clemency hearing was held. The board split: two voted for clemency, two voted for 25 years, two voted to deny. The lead detective on the case wrote a seven-page letter to the governor urging him to deny clemency. He said there was no evidence she was trafficked. He said the motive was robbery. On January 7, 2019, Governor Bill Haslam commuted her sentence to 15 years plus 10 years supervised parole. He said life with a 51-year minimum was "too harsh" for a juvenile. She walked out of prison on August 7, 2019. She had been locked up since she was sixteen. Her pimp Kut-Throat never faced charges for trafficking her. He was shot and killed by someone else in 2005. He was 24. Johnny Allen's family said their hearts were broken. They said he never got to defend himself. Cyntoia married a man named J. Long while still in prison. She wrote a memoir. She started a nonprofit for trafficking survivors. She speaks publicly about what happened to her. She was a child. She was sold. She killed the man who bought her. And the system punished HER. When a 43-year-old man buys a 16-year-old for sex and gets shot - and the child gets life in prison - who is the criminal?