Thoughts on the Cyntioa Brown story

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So today I watched a interesting movie documentry on Netflix,it was the Cyntoia Brown story(today Cyntoia Brown Long as married) and it was a interesting movie doc.

She was born on january 29th 1988 to a crack addicted prostitute mother and was born with fetal alcohol syndrome or fetal alcohol spectrum disorder as it's known today.

As a 16 year old prostitute she killed her john,43 year old Johnny Michael Allen,she feared she would be raped or killed and she killed him.The prosecution said she killed in the coarse of a robbery.

Her case was taken from juvinile court and remanded to superior criminal court where she was tried as an adult.She was convicted and sentenced to 51 years to life in prison.

In prison she received to college degrees and was a model prisoner and after all her appeals ran out her legal team asked the governor who was in his final year in office for clemency.

The governor Bill Haslam re-sentenced her to 15 years and was given parole about 6 months after the clemency was given.

Now free,she is 32 and is married and has written two books and life is going well.

It was a good movie and I do recommend it to you if your interested,it's available on Netflix now.

There is a similar case in Wisconsin that's been in limbo. https://abcnews.go.com/US/chrystul-kize ... d=67805720

I have an acquaintance who almost never weighs in on hot button issues who signed a petition late last year on behalf of the young woman on trial. It received quite a bit of public attention but this is all complicated. I'm skeptical the killing wasn't premeditated as some of her actions in the aftermath included intentionally robbing the john.

What I find interesting is the question of whether there was a vigilante motive. Apparently the guy had been prostituting girls who were young and sharing footage of them online, and though this had begun to come to the attention of the authorities, there had been delays in pressing any charges against him.

It' hard to know in both cases because I wasn't in the room and didn't see the crime.

In the Brown case it seems,if it was self defense,the conviction should have been overturned and her record cleaned and given financial compensation for wrongful incarceration.If she didn't do it in self defense being a model prisoner and changing her life is no reason to vacate a life term.Many people serving life sentences radically changed there lives once in prison but get no clemency.

Carla Fey Tucker was said to have changed and was a model prisoner and she was executed,she didn't even get a commutation to life without parole.There are 1,000 examples of murderers who changed once in jail but that is not considered grounds for release.

However the fact that she was 16 at the time of the crime and the Supreme court has ruled those who were under 18 when they committed murder can't be given life without parole.

The fact that she was born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder from her prostitute mother's substance abuse worked in her favor.And being a woman worked in her favor as well because the justice system is more compassionate towards woman in general.

Also the fact that she was trafficked,and sex trafficking is a hot button issue today,also played in her favor.

And we can't forget the Governor was a lame duck in his last year in office and had nothing to loose by granting clemency.

As far as the Wisconsin case,we will have to wait and see,jury's are unpredictable,Wisconsin is an up in the air political sitiuation,it's not hang um high Texas but it's also not liberal New York or Massachusetts.Only time will tell in that case.