Cyntoia Brown, Juvenile Lifer, To Plead For Leniency

NASHVILLE, TN — A federal appeals court in Cincinnati will hear oral arguments Thursday in a plea for leniency for Cyntoia Brown, who is serving a life sentence in Tennessee for killing her 43-year-old abuser when she was 16. More than a dozen advocacy groups have joined in the appeal, which has rallied activists nationally for both criminal justice system reform and increased awareness of the toll of human trafficking.

Brown’s sentence carries no possibility of parole until she has served 51 years, when the now 30-year-old would be 69. Tried as an adult, she was convicted of killing Johnnie Mitchell Allen in 2004.

Her attorneys presented evidence at trial of a 16-year-old who had been repeatedly raped, beaten, choked and threatened at gunpoint, and that her boyfriend at the time, a pimp known as “Cut Throat,” set her up with Allen. The two left a Nashville fast-food restaurant together and Brown testified that she shot Allen in self-defense while they were together in his bed.

The jury sided with prosecutors, who showed autopsy photos of Allen’s body riddled with bullets and presented Brown as a cold-blooded killer who robbed her victim.

“I do pray that show mercy and that you give me a second chance,” Brown recently told a parole board at the Tennessee Prison for Women. She said she has earned her college degree behind bars and has “a whole community of people who love me, who believe in me, who support me.”

Brown’s attorneys are expected to pin arguments on recent Supreme Court rulings holding that it's unconstitutional to give minors mandatory life sentences without the possibility of parole.

Several states amended their laws after the Supreme Court declared juvenile life sentences without parole to be unconstitutional. Tennessee wasn’t among them. Brown’s supporters argue that another 21 years in prison is too long.

“She has demonstrated her accountability and served her time,” Cathy Gurley of the Tennessee victims rights group You Have the Power told NBC News. Brown is the first inmate the group has backed in 25 years, Gurley said.

Among other groups that have filed an amicus brief in support of the appeal are the Southern Poverty Law Center, The Sentencing Project and the Center for Wrongful Convictions of Youth.

Several celebrities, including Kim Kardashian, Rihanna and LeBron James, have picked up Brown’s cause on social media and called for her release under the hashtag #freecyntoiabrown. Petitions for Brown’s freedom online are nearing the signature goal of 500,0000.

The appeal to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals follows an appeal for clemency and commutation of Allen’s sentence filed with the state parole board by Brown’s Nashville attorneys in December. The 6th Circuit appeal was filed in January.

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