Transcript for Cyntoia Brown granted clemency after serving 15 years in prison
Next tonight, to the case of a young woman, convicted of murder, the crime happened when she was just 16, she had argued all along she had been forced into sex. Well, tonight, the Tennessee governor has just granted clemency, and here’s ABC’s Steve osunsami. Reporter: Tennessee’s governor tonight says that requiring cyntoia brown to serve 51 years before she’s up for parole was just too much. She’ll be released from prison in August, after serving 15-year-olds. The now 30-year-old was convicted of murder and sentenced to life after killing this man, 43-year-old real estate agent Johnny Allen, who hired her to have sex with him when she was just 16. A 2011 documentary, describing how she was forced into a life of prostitution as a child, moved actors and athletes to push for her early release. Why would you throw me away for the rest of my life? I don’t understand that. Reporter: Rihanna, Kim Kardashian and Lebron James are just a few who shared clips of her interviews. In jail, she’s about to get a bachelor’s degree. At this hearing in may, she explained why. It was so necessary to change. It wasn’t so much of a choice. But I had to. Reporter: Her attorneys say there’s a larger issue here, about laws that allow juveniles to be placed in adult prisons when they’re just children.
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