NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/CLARKSVILLENOW) – Lawyers for a Tennessee woman serving a life sentence for killing a man who solicited her for prostitution when she was 16 have petitioned the state parole board to commute her sentence.
The Tennessean reports attorneys for 29-year-old Cyntoia Brown filed the request Tuesday to reduce her first-degree murder sentence to second-degree murder, which could allow for her release next year. Supporters say she’s been unjustly punished, forced as a child into prostitution.
Brown was convicted in the 2004 shooting of 43-year-old Johnny Allen. Prosecutors said Brown killed him to rob him. Brown said she feared harm after Allen picked her up and drove her to his house. She also said she was then living with a man who sexually abused her and forced her into prostitution.
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