Before I start this is the link to the video this posting is based on:
I watched this documentary this afternoon during one of my many "revision breaks" and found it so poignant that I felt I had to post something on it. To those who will not watch the video I will do my best to briefly summarise it;
Cyntoia Brown had a troubled childhood, being left with foster parents after her then 16 year old mother struggled to care for her. After being moved around from home to home she found herself at the age of 16 deep into the life of prostitution, her "mentor" a gang member named Kut-tooth would abuse her and force her into the arms of other men for money. On one such day she was picked up by a passing man named Johnny Allen, the intention being for her to go back to his house for sex after "bartering" on the price of the act. During the evening things became uncomfortable for her after Mr Allen started to act strangely, later on that night Cyntoia shot Mr Allen claiming that "as he turned around to reach over the bed I thought he was going to grab a gun or hit me".
After a lengthy court process Cyntoia was found to be eligible to trial as an adult, which the maximum sentence for murder would be life in prison (the death sentence was not available as the crime was commited by a minor). The result of her trial was that Cyntoia was found guilty of pre-mediated murder and would serve life in prison.
I personally found this decision hard to agree with from a personal level, although I am not aware of all the facts behind this case. The impression I got from the film was that although guilty of the crime of murder was she entirely responsible ? It merely came down to "your word against mine" as to what went on that evening in Mr Allen's house and it seems like a waste of a human life to discard a life in prison for something that was mostly due to environment and nurture not nature.
Is Cyntoia a stone-cold killer? Would she leave prison and kill again ? I somehow highly doubt that, she came across as a deeply troubled individual psychologically not given a chance at life. She was extremely intelligent and remorseful about her crime.
In the end I just feel that as an intelligent and supposedly "fair" society would it not be more appropriate to try and rehabilitate this person and give her the chance in life that almost all of us take for granted ?
Here is much more thorough (and frankly better written) article on the subject
Opinions ?
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