Sex trafficking victim must serve 51 years before release

In a stunning case that have been controversial since its inception grew even more controversial with the state’s highest court ruling against a young woman (Cyntoia Brown) caught up in a tale of sex for hire, child trafficking and murder. It’s not a TV or movies script: it’s real life for Cyntoia Brown. At 16, she was raped and forced into prostitution by a pimp known as “Kut Throat.” She was sold to a man named Johnny Allen, and when he tried to assault her, she pulled a gun out and shot him dead. Despite the circumstances, she was convicted of murder and sentence to life in prison. That was in 2004. And last week, the Tennessee Supreme Court said she must remain in prison for at least another 51 years until being considered for parole. The court’s opinion was in response to a lawsuit that argues that Brown’s life sentence is unconstitutional due to a 2012 ruling by the U.S. Supreme court that said mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles violates the U.S. Constitution, reports the Huffington Post. In response to the court’s opinion, the Women’s March on Saturday said a nationwide march in support Brown and other sex-trafficking victims will be held on Jan. 19. Brown was tried as an adult, convicted of first-degree murder, felony murder and especially aggravated robbery and was sentenced to life in prison for Allen’s death. Tennessee’s Supreme Court on Thursday said that, under the state’s law, defendants like Brown who were convicted of first-degree murder after July 1, 1995, could only be released from prison after serving at least 51 years of their sentences.  Brown has described her life sentence as a “cruel and unusual punishment,” pointing to the 2012 Supreme Court ruling on mandatory life sentences without parole for juveniles. But a U.S. District Court in Tennessee denied Brown’s motion, noting that she received a “life sentence, not a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.” Brown has appealed that decision, which is pending before the U.S. Sixth Court of Appeals.