“We Won Clemency for Cyntoia Brown—Now Let’s Free all Survivors”

In sev­en months, Cyn­toia Brown will be released from prison, hav­ing been grant­ed a full com­mu­ta­tion to parole by exit­ing Ten­nessee Gov­er­nor Bill Haslam. Cyn­toia has already served 15 years of a life sen­tence. When she was a teenag­er, Cyn­toia expe­ri­enced con­tin­u­al vio­lence and was engaged in sur­vival work. At the age of 16, she shot John­ny Allen, a 43-year-old client who she says ini­ti­at­ed their inter­ac­tion by talk­ing down her rate for paid sex. Allen would lat­er become vio­lent, accord­ing to Cyn­toia, caus­ing her to fear for her life and take actions to pro­tect her­self. She won clemen­cy as a result of a sus­tained grass­roots mobi­liza­tion root­ed in the belief that Black women should not be pun­ished for sur­viv­ing — using any means necessary.

JANUARY 15, 2019 / by Brit Schulte

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