Nashville
#FreeCyntoiaBrown: Gov. Bill Haslem granted clemency this week to Cyntoia Brown, commuting her life sentence for killing a man who had hired her for sex when she was a 16-year-old trafficking victim. Brown’s case attracted national attention, fueled by a 2010 PBS documentary and support from celebrities such as Rihanna and Kim Kardashian. Now 30, Brown will be released from prison in August. Brown ran away from her adopted family as a teen and lived with a pimp who raped and abused her while forcing her to work as a prostitute, her attorney said. In 2004, she was picked up and taken to the home of Johnny Allen, 43. She killed Allen with a handgun she carried in her purse. Brown has said she believed he was reaching for a gun, while prosecutors contended Allen was most likely asleep when he was shot. “I will do everything I can to justify your faith in me,” Brown said in a statement thanking Haslem.