A murder case from 2004 has been back in the news recently. Cyntoia Brown was convicted of the first degree murder of Johnny Allen in the American state of Tennessee. Don’t believe anything you read or hear about her innocence on social media.
In fact, don’t believe anything you read or hear about any murder case on social media until you have read the official findings of an appellate court, because there have been and are numerous such cases of convicted killers pleading their innocence and people lobbying on their behalf when the most cursory examination of the documented facts of the case reveals a trove of damning evidence.
This was the case with Troy Davis – executed in 2011; Linda Carty – currently on death row in Texas; and many others.
The appeal of Cyntoia Brown for most of the gullibles is her age. She was just sixteen years old in August 2004 when she shot and killed Johnny Allen. She was arrested shortly, and when she appeared in court, her legal team dressed her up like a thirteen year old, in pigtails. The story she gave the court was that she was a victim of sex trafficking and that she had been forced or virtually forced to shoot Allen because she was in fear of her life.
These claims were rejected by the jury in her 2006 trial and by the Tennessee Court Of Criminal Appeals in a lengthy judgment. Because of the gravity of her crime, she was tried as an adult; murder is seldom suitable for trying in juvenile court. That notwithstanding, the singer Rihanna and others have reignited this non-controversy by ill-informed posts on social media. They have been joined by CNN, National Public Radio, and many others who should know better but don’t. Many of them are not simply bending over backwards to excuse Brown but are literally making stuff up.
Cyntoia Brown:
The Murderous Psychopath In Pigtails
