Culture

Celebrities Call For The Release Of Teen Sex-Trafficking Victim

Kim Kardashian West, Rihanna and Cara Delevingne are asking for the release of Cyntoia Brown,

by Patrick Lenton  24 November 2017
Cyntoia Brown

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Celebrities including Kim Kardashian West and Rihanna have taken to Twitter and Instagram to ask for the release of Cyntoia Brown, who was convicted after fatally shooting a 43-year-old man, who had hired her for sex when she was 16. She has been sentenced to life in prison, and is now 29 and appealing her case in the US Court of Appeals.

Rihanna wrote an impassioned plea on her Instagram, saying:

“Did we somehow change the definition of #JUSTICE along the way?? cause….. Something is horribly wrong when the system enables these rapists and the victim is thrown away for life! To each of you responsible for this child’s sentence I hope to God you don’t have children, because this could be your daughter being punished for punishing already!”

On Twitter, Kim Kardashian West pledged to call her attorneys to help with the issue:

“The system has failed,” she wrote on Tuesday. “It’s heart breaking to see a young girl sex trafficked then when she has the courage to fight back is jailed for life! We have to do better & do what’s right.

Other celebrities including Cara Delevingne have also gotten on board.

“The justice system is so backwards!!! This is completely insane #freecyntoiabrown,” she wrote.

In a report by BuzzFeed News, Brown’s attorney Charles Bones said that he was unsure why the celebrities have began noticing the case at this point, but also that the support is welcome.

“This issue in general is worthy of a lot of publicity especially in the culture in which we live today, and we think the fact that Cyntoia happens to be the child that is the subject of all of the publicity in the last 24 hours is wonderful. Obviously she is not a child anymore, but she was sentenced as a child.”

Cyntoia Brown’s case was first publicised in the 2011 documentary Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story, which explored her time as a sex-trafficking victim, and her subsequent life since being imprisoned. Brown has now been in prison for 13 years, and has been denied numerous requests for post-conviction relief from the courts.