CommentaryImagine being a young, insecure, terrified child who feels like she does not belong or is loved by anyone. You have been beaten, raped, mistreated and neglected your entire life. Your own family gave you up for adoption, and while you were adopted, you do not feel like the family values you or honestly desires that you be a part of the family. In an act of sheer desperation and in an effort to find love and affirmation, you run away from home. You meet a handsome young man who tells you all you want to hear: you are beautiful, smart, pretty, kind, funny, and he loves you. He tells you that no one else sees the value in you like he does and that no one else will love you like he does. He buys you clothes, when no one else has done that for you. He takes you to nice restaurants and makes you laugh. He looks in your eyes and sees into your soul and you believe that he is your super hero. You have finally found your one true love until the day comes when he beats you to within an inch of your life. He yells at you, calls you vulgar names, tells you that you are a whore and a slut. He tells you that you need to learn now how to just be a good whore since that is all that you were meant for. Imagine feeling hurt, confused, lost, devastated, afraid and scared. Imagine not knowing what to do other than to try to win your one true love back. He tells you to go and get him some money. He has made you sell yourself for cash in the past. You hate it. It is degrading and humiliating but you do it to make him happy. You do not want to lose the one person in the world that loves you like no one else. You do this even though you are 16 years old, legally a child, it is what you know to do to survive in a world where your value is minuscule. You know that the world does not value you, and you place very little value in yourself.
Society and our criminal justice system place a value on victims and defendants. We manifest this valuation in how we mete out punishment, how we choose who will be stopped, frisked, searched, arrested, charged, given probation, have charges dismissed and even expunged. We show the worth we place in people by the fact that 95% of elected prosecutors are white males and they have control and say over a jail and prison population that is increasingly People of Color.
We do not have to look very far or wide to see who our country values more. All we need to do is watch the evening news, open a newspaper, do a cursory search online, or listen to the radio. When a white female is kidnapped or missing, it is a major source of news and the stories appear daily until she is found, dead or alive. There is a current ongoing tragedy involving Native American women, who are murdered or are missing. Local police stations are not tracking or investigating these murders. Neither are they being reported by any local news outlets. It is said that these women have disappeared three times: in life, in the media and in the data.
Another gauge into who we as a society value is how we notice and change the health outcomes for varying groups. African American women have the worst health outcomes of any group when it comes to heart attacks. They die in disproportionate numbers from cancers in numbers greater than other groups.
Latina women earn 62% less on the dollar than all groups, (education, experience and training all being equal). They are the lowest paid without question. These facts should outrage all decent, honest people but they are facts that are not challenged and are not going to be easily changed.
This disparate shows that we live in a world that judges people according to constructs as dictated by those in power. They show that there are discrepancies and discrimination that take place which mainly affect Black and Brown lives. These system failures cause Black and Brown lives to stay caught up in an unfair, biased, system that is not designed to seek the truth, justice or liberty.
The arrest, charge, conviction and imprisonment of Cyntoia Brown is a classic example of how law enforcement and the criminal justice system fail victims of commercial sexual exploitation, but it also exemplifies how girls and women of color are vilified, overlooked and grossly under-served. Human trafficking is an ever changing criminal enterprise and traffickers know how to navigate the evolving face of victimization to stay a step or two ahead of the law. Many traffickers know how to capitalize on how our system fails girls and women of color. They use this to their advantage. It is past time for law enforcement officials, prosecutors, legislators, NGO’s, the criminal justice system and all agencies working to effectuate change, to recognize that a disproportionate amount of victims are girls and women of color and that they are falling through the cracks.
The vast majority of victims of sex trafficking have endured neglect, exploitation, and horrific abuse prior to being trafficked. These are some of the factors that cause individuals to be more vulnerable to being exploited. That is what happened in Cyntoia’s case. She was born into a life that made her a perfect candidate for being trafficked. Her mother suffered from drug and alcohol addiction. Cyntoia was born with “fetal alcohol syndrome” and later in life was diagnosed with a severe neurodevelopmental disorder. She was a foster child when she got caught up with the wrong group of people. By the age of 16, Cyntoia was controlled by an abusive, domineering, hate filled man who went by the name, “Cut Throat.” Cut Throat beat Cyntoia repeatedly, raped her, choked her until she was unconscious and forced her to have sex with multiple strangers for money. On the evening of August 6, 2004, Cut Throat demanded that Cyntoia go out and “get him some money.” She knew what that meant and what would happen to her if she returned empty handed. She was walking through a fast food parking lot when she was solicited by a 43 year old, white, male, real estate agent, Johnny Allen. Allen took this child to his home where he agreed to pay her for sex. Cyntoia said that Allen was violent towards her and brandished guns. While in bed with Allen, Cyntoia said she felt that Allen was reaching for a weapon when she shot him in the head. After killing him, she stole two guns and some cash and drove away in his truck. She was arrested, and charged with murder and aggravated robbery. She was tried as an adult and described at trial as a “prostitute.” She was convicted and sentenced to two life sentences to run concurrently.
Cyntoia was “purchased” and raped by a man 27 years her senior. Her mother testified at trial that she drank as much as she could get her hands on while she was pregnant. She gave birth to a child that as a result of the “fetal alcohol syndrome” would be at risk of being slower mentally, unable to control her actions/impulses and subject to reduced reasoning skills. After being in the foster system, Cyntoia was later adopted but had trouble adjusting to life. She had stability and trust issues. Understandably she felt alone, rejected, inferior, and as if no one cared for her. She had low self-esteem and felt devalued. She ended up running away and falling into the wrong hands. Cut Throat was a master manipulator and told Cyntoia that she was born to be a whore and that the best thing for her to do was to learn how to be a “good whore.”
Cyntoia’s case is an exception to the rule in that she was fortunate enough to receive clemency from Tennessee Governor, Bill Haslam. This came after multiple denied appeals, a denial by the Tennessee Supreme Court in December 2018, and sadly after spending almost 16 years in prison. Cyntoia is set to be released in August 2019. Everything that happened to this child is a tragedy but it happens far more than we care to think about. That is part of the problem with sex trafficking: we do not want to think about it.
It is our “dirty little secret.” Why do we not like to think about it? Because if we do, we have to address the demand component of sex trafficking. We have to stop and look at who are the johns, the perpetrators, the buyers, the predators, the men that purchase these boys, girls, men and women for sex? Where do they come from? What do they look like? Why do they do this? The answers are far too complicated and difficult for us to fathom or entertain. We would rather close our eyes and ears to this problem because that is more comfortable. The reasons why are staggering, heavy, embarrassing, earth shattering, and devastating. Why? Because these men are our fathers, husbands, sons, uncles, friends, boyfriends, next door neighbors, our police officers, our doctors, and even our pastors. They are us. When we confront, face to face this heinous issue and we peel back the layers we must see that there would be no sex trafficking if there were no Johnny Allen’s in this world. Cut Throat would have to sell a new product if the demand were not existent.
What kind of society do we have where we are raising boys, who grow up to be men, who think it is acceptable to buy children? How can we rectify how we are rearing young men to think that a person could ever be for sale? What kind of community do we live in where the vast majority of human trafficking victims are African American females? When these same women comprise 13% of the U.S. population? What is it about African American females that they are much more expendable and sexually commodified? If Cyntoia came from a home where both parents were educated, and was an affluent, white, 16 year old female, would she have been deemed a prostitute at trial and tried as an adult? Would she have been given two life sentences as her punishment?
As a society, until we address these issues, we will not be able to truly tackle this problem. These questions are fraught with varying complexities and nuances that are not easily dealt with, but if we want to live up to the notion that all men, and women, are created equal, then we must find a way to discuss these issues and create real change. If we do not do this, we are a lying, pretentious, hypocritical nation that really only values certain people. The Cyntoia Brown’s of the world deserve better and as a nation we owe them better because we
are better.
Professor Cheryl Taylor Page is the head of the criminal law department at Lincoln Memorial University Duncan School of Law since 2010. Prior to teaching, Page served as a criminal prosecutor, and a staff attorney for the State Board for Educator Certification in Austin, Texas. Professor Page currently researches in the area of Sex Trafficking. She also speaks internationally at conferences on the topic of sex trafficking.
Suggested citation: Cheryl “Shelly” Taylor Page, Grant of Clemency to Cyntoia Brown Highlights Deep Rooted Social Issues, JURIST – Academic Commentary, Feb. 24, 2019, https://www.jurist.org/commentary/2019/11/cyntoia-brown-clemency/
This article was prepared for publication by Leanne Winkels, an Associate Editor for JURIST Commentary. Please direct any questions or comments to her at commentary@jurist.org
