At 16 She Committed Murder, Now This Trafficking Victim Finds Mercy as Well as Justice

In the sordid and brutal world of human trafficking, two recent stories deserve a closer look and a deeper understanding. Both stories involve justice — one for a person just emerging from a long run behind bars and the other for a person who always seems just outside of the grasp of the law. The first of these two stories comes to us from Tennessee, where Cyntoia Brown has recently been released from prison. Her case is more complicated than many human trafficking clemency stories but nonetheless instructive. At 16, she was in a desperate situation. She was being trafficked, sold for sex to men unconcerned about the damage they did to her. But she also had a gun, which she used to shoot one of those men in the back of the head. She committed murder and, even as a juvenile, was therefore sentenced to life in prison.  Continue reading...