Big Bombshells From Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story

A Changed Mind

Appellate prosecutor Preston Shipp worked on upholding her conviction before meeting Cyntoia in the spring of 2009 when he taught a course she was taking in prison. He couldn't believe the girl in the case file was the "luminous" young woman in his class. "Time and proximity are funny things because they can change adversaries into allies," Shipp said 10 year later, by her side at the parole hearing, arguing in her favor."

"What I did was horrible," Brown told the board, taking responsibility for her actions. "I killed Johnny Allen, he's gone, and it's stayed with me this whole time. I was locked up at 16, like that was it. I have no choice but to live a different life."

One of her post-relief attorneys says in the film, referring to the tragedy of Cyntoia's nearly nonexistent childhood, "She didn't have a chance before she was born. She didn't have a chance after she was born."

Thanks to a variety of forces that came together, not least of which was Cyntoia's will to better her life no matter where she had to live it, she has that chance now.

Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story is streaming now on Netflix.

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