Cyntonia Brown’s Life Sentence Sparks Outrage Over America’s Justice System

By Shenequa Golding

In 2004, Cyntonia Brown was sentenced to life in prison for killing the Nashville realtor who bought her for sex. At 16-years-old after being raped and abused, she was tried as an adult and sentenced to life in prison.

Brown is just one of many young girls who are trafficked in the United Staes and forced to enter the treacherous world of sex slavery. Nashville’s Fox 17 spoke with filmmaker Dan Birman who followed Brown for seven years while creating a documentary about her life, case and prison sentence. Birman told Fox 17 that Brown comes from a generation of women who’ve been abused.

“This is a young girl who’s at the tail end of three generations of violence against women,” Birman said.

Brown’s grandmother and mother have all been raped.

“She had no chance,” Birman continued.

During her trial, Brown gave graphic detail of her experience, which included always having a gun pointed at her, being physically abused, dragged and choked. The jury handed down a life sentence. Under the law at the time making her eligible for parole when she would be 67-years-old. However, Brown’s sentence has just caught fire on social media, with many wondering how could a teen forced into sex slavery be convicted for killing her rapist?

This post Cyntonia Brown’s Life Sentence Sparks Outrage Over America’s Justice System first appeared on Vibe.