“Count one, guilty, first-degree murder. Count two, guilty of felony murder. Count three, guilty of especially aggravated robbery.” This is the verdict Cyntoia, a teen victim of sex-trafficking, got on August 25th, 2006. Her whole life, she had been facing abuse and inequity. She was only 16 when she has murdered Johnny Allen in 2004, and is now serving a life sentence, with an eligible parole on her 69th birthday. What the jury hasn’t been told about is that Cyntoia has been repeatedly drugged and physically and sexually assaulted by her abusive pimp “boyfriend”, as well as raped by different men; she has also been forced into underage prostitution. Her family has records of multiple psychiatric disorders which has scarred the girl; additionally,…show more content… One of these people was a pimp by the nickname “Kutthroat”, or Garion McGlothen, with whom Cyntoia lived in several motels for three weeks. Kutthroat has marked the point of her life when everything had slowly turned into hell. The pimp was a drug dealer who forced Brown into prostitution, as well as raped, drugged, beaten and abused her; if she disobeyed Kut, he could easily kill her. Adding to that, she couldn’t easily escape, since he knew where her mom lived. While living with the pimp, Cyntoia either had sexual intercourse with him or got high. Citing from Cyntoia’s words, “He said that I was slipping and that I was starting to become a slouch, that I needed to get out and get on my grind and get some money… I remember one first time, the first time he did something to me is when he choked me and I passed out… He’d jack me up, pull me by my hair and drag me and stuff. He put guns up to me, told me to strip and stuff like that, get into bed with other people… I made him money. He wasn’t going to let me go nowhere. He told me he’d kill me.” (Sentencing Children, 02:50-03:58). In other words, Cyntoia was living under Kut’s control, making him profit and, potentially, risking her life, as if she was his slave. The girl had admitted that this constant abuse made her paranoid. Additionally, Cyntoia Brown testified in 2012, “He…show more content… It’s about a young girl, who’s been punished for enduring her life full of abuse and harm, while the culprits never faced any consequences. Cyntoia had it tough since her birth, being born to an alcoholic mother, and being a victim of rape, sex-trafficking, and underage prostitution. When Brown was a minor, she was tried as an adult, and had been given a life sentence. The jury showed no sympathy for Cyntoia, and it has never been informed about her tragic past. Mercilessly given the verdict, Cyntoia Brown is now spending the rest of her life in jail.
Work Cited:
“PEOPLE Explains: The Case of Cyntoia Brown, Who Murdered a Man as Teen After Being Forced Into Prostitution.” PEOPLE.com, people.com/crime/cyntoia-brown-case-sex-trafficking-murder-prostitution/. Accessed January 19, 2018.
“Who Is Cyntoia Brown? Social Media Rallies Around Child Sex Slave Sent To Prison For Killing Abuser.” Essence.com, www.essence.com/news/cyntoia-brown-child-sex-slave-documentary. Accessed January 20, 2018.
Birman, Daniel H., and Independent Lens. “Stream SENTENCING CHILDREN PART 1: CYNTOIAS STORY on PBS.” PBS, Public Broadcasting Service, 14 Aug. 2017, www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/sentencing-children-cyntoias-story/. Accessed January 21,
