Aug. 6, 2024

The Complex Case of Cyntoia Brown

Show Notes
Transcript

Dive into the journey of Cyntoia Brown, a young girl born into desperate circumstances who endured unimaginable hardships. At just sixteen, Cyntoia faced the horrors of abuse, manipulation, and survival on the streets, only to be thrust into the national spotlight for a crime shrouded in controversy. This episode uncovers the complex layers of her life, from her troubled childhood to her transformation into a symbol of hope and resilience. Join us as we explore the events that led to her life sentence, the public outcry for justice, and her ultimate redemption. This is a story of the fight for a second chance.

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He would explain to me that some people were born whores,

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and that I was one, and I was a slut,

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and nobody want me but him. A girl told the

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courts these are words that are so difficult to hear

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in any testimony, let alone when we know that the

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girl that spoke them was only sixteen years old at

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the time she recalled them. Centoya Denise Brown was born

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at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, on January twenty ninth, nineteen eighty eight,

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and she was born into desperate circumstances. The identity of

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her biological father remains a mystery even to Centoya, but

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in some ways we know all too much about her mother,

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Georgina Mitchell. When Georgina was pregnant with Centoya, she drank.

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By her own accounts, she drank about a fifth of

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a bottle of whiskey every day during her whole pregnancy.

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After Centoya was born, Georgina then escalated to crack cocaine,

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bipolar personality disorder, suicidal, manic, depressive. Georgina later listed some

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of the conditions that she had been diagnosed with. Any

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single one of those would have made things difficult enough

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when trying to raise a daughter as a single parent.

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Maybe realizing that she was taking on too much for

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what she was dealing with. Georgina then put Centoya up

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for adoption, but in so many ways, the damage had

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already been done. Although she would later grow into a

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fiercely independent woman, her mother's drinking would deeply affect Centoya,

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who'd been born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, a condition

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that alters the mental and cognitive development in children. Centoya

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was adopted into what seemed to be a good home,

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but struggled anyway. She ended up dropping out of elementary

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school and getting into trouble with the juvenile court system.

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In two thousand one, she spent two years in the

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Department of Children's Services for committing crimes against a person

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and crimes against property. During her time in DCS facilities,

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including one called Woodland Hills Youth Development Center in Nashville,

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Centoya escaped and went on the run several times. One

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of those times, one that came in two thousand and four,

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would be Centoya's last escape, and she left to live

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on her own on the streets of Nashville. Sinoya first

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managed to get by by living with friends, some of

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which are allegedly already deep into drinking and drugs even

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though they were still children themselves. And then she met

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garyon mcloughin. His street name was Cutthroat, and even though

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the twenty four year old first won Centoya over by

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being kind and sweet, that was all about the change.

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When Sentoya moved into a hotel room with Cutthroat, his

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true nature finally emerged. The new couple now needed a

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way to support themselves, and Cutthroat believed that he had

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the solution. Sixteen year old Centoya would have to start

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working the streets. Sintoya found herself going along with his plan,

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and when she decided she didn't want to at any point,

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he would threaten, beat her, and on multiple occasions, sexually

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assault her. The best thing I could do was learn

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to be a good whore, Centoya later testified. On the

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summer night of August sixth to the thousand and four,

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Cintoya found herself out working the streets again when she

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was approached by a potential client, Forty three year old

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Johnny Michael Allen, a real estate agent, local youth pastor

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and Sunday school teacher. He approached Centoya in his car.

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According to accounts. He then asked Centoya if she was

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hungry and up for any action. Saintoya said yes to

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both questions. She got into Johnny's car and left the

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car park with him. They first ordered food before Johnny

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took her to his house, where the two of them

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negotiated that Centoya would have sex with him in exchange

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for one hundred and fifty dollars. Friends and families say

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that Johnny would never have approached Centoya looking for in

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exchange of services. In fact, they later argued it was

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more likely that Johnny was just trying to help the

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struggling teenager. The prosecution and other witnesses disagreed with his statement,

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and several teenage girls would come forward to testify that

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she Johnny would often hit on them in public. Cintoya

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herself also had a different version of events. She said

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that during her time at Johnny's house, he continuously talked

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about his guns. He allegedly told her that he'd been

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a sharp shooter in the military and was an incredible shot.

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Cintoya said that she had been terrified and wanted to leave,

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but the visible gun cabinet in the corner of the

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room had made her stay. Put, although she claims that

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the two of them never actually had sex. That evening,

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the two of them ended up in bed. Johnny was naked,

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and after alleged accounts where he violently grabbed Centoya by

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the genitals, he turned around and began reaching for something

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under the bed. Cintoya claims she thought that he was

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reaching for one of his guns, and that she simply

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shot first in order to defend herself. Cutthroats had given

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Centoya a gun to protect herself with when working, and

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as Johnny had been reaching for something that Centoya could not,

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Cintoya spun around and shot him in the back of

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the head. Then, allegedly, terrified of showing back up at

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home empty handed, she stole one hundred seventy two dollars

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from Johnny's wallets and a couple of his firearms before

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jumping into Johnny's truck and driving off. She abandoned the

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truck in a wal Mart parking lot before hitchhiking her

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way back home. This was the version of events that

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Centoya told the investigators and the courts, but as everyone

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would find out, things were rarely black and white, with

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Centoya still only a homeless runaway child who'd been forced

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into prostitution by her older and abusive boyfriend. Cintoya seemed

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to take killing Johnny in stride. She called up a

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neighbor the next day asking for a lift to that

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same car park where she'd abandon Johnny's car the night before.

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I shot somebody in the head last night and blew

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his brains out. Detectives took down a witness statement from

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this neighbor claiming that Cento Zoya had then asked him

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to drive her to Johnny's house. She also apparently said

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that she'd stolen fifty thousand dollars and some guns from

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the man she'd killed. The neighbor refused to take Centoya

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to Johnny's house, and once she found out that her

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neighbor had reported her to the police, she called him

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up to threaten him. You'd better stop running your effing

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mouth about my business, or I'll get to you too,

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she warned him. But instead of killing her neighbor, Centoya

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actually called nine to one one and confessed to killing Johnny.

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She was arrested and charged with murder. There was no

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question of her guilt, but the system needed to figure

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out if Centoya would be tried as a miner or.

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As an adult, she was still only sixteen years old,

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but her crime had been a big and serious one.

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A juvenile court judge eventually ruled that Centoya's case was

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too much of a risk to the community for her

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to be tried as a miner. Centoya kept claiming self

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defense and that she'd believe Johnny had been reaching for

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a gun. The acution argued that there had been no

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firearm in Johnny's bedroom, and that, judging by the position

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he'd been found in, he'd actually been sleeping at the

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time of the shooting. Cintoya, they argued, hadn't felt like

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she'd been in danger that night. She'd killed Johnny simply

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so that she could rob him. The defense claimed that

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Johnny had been much much more than what he'd seemed

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to be on the surface. They said that what he

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was was a forty three year old predator, and his

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prey had been the sixteen year old girl that he'd

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been intent on sexually assaulting that night. To prove this,

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they produced a witness who claimed that Johnny had brought

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her to his home one night, just like he had

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with Centoya. He then began kissing and fondling her, but

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when the girl had said that she didn't want to

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have sex with him, Johnny raped her. The jury heard

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evidence both for and against Centoya's claims of self defense,

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but ultimately they ruled that Centoya's motives had not been pure.

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She was found guilty a first degree murder, and because

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she was being tried as an adult, her punishment would

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be much more severe than if she were being sentenced

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as a minor. Centoya was facing life in prison with

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the possibility of parole after fifty one years, meaning that

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she would be at least sixty seven by the time

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she saw the outside world again. But Centoya got to

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work making the most out of her sentence. She first

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earned her ged, then a liberal arts degree, then a

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bachelor's degree, both of which she actually graduated with a

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four point zero GPA. It looked like Centoya was doing

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everything she could to turn her life around, despite the

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over half century she would have to wait to put

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any of her new degrees to good use. And then

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in twenty seventeen, words spread about Centoia and what had

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happened to her. Rhianna, Kim Kardashian, Snoop Dogg, and many

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others made social media posts in support of Centoya after

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hearing her story in a documentary. They helped put the

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public pressure on the system to grant Centoya her freedom.

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She found herself in a clemency hearing with many people

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testifying on her behalf and arguing for her release, including

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the prosecutor, Preston Ship, who had helped put Cintoya behind

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bars in the first place. But she also had people

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arguing against her release, including Charles Robinson, the lead detective

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on Johnny's case. He told the board that he didn't

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believe that there was any physical evidence to support Centoya's

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claims of self defense, or even that she was being

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trafficked in the first place. The boards split into three.

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They were those who supported Centoya, those who wanted to

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keep her in prison for the rest of her term,

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and those who wanted to reduce her sentence. While the

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board continued to debate Centoya's future, the Tennessee Supreme Court

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was wrestling with the same question. Was it right to

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lock up a sixteen year old and throw away the key?

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Governor Bill Haslam didn't think so, and an his final

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month in office, he commuted Centoya's sentenced to fifteen years,

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which she had already served, plus ten years of supervised parole.

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She was released from prison in the summer of twenty nineteen.

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That's ten minute murder for today Brief and binge Able

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True Crime. I'm Joe, I'm the host, and thank you

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so much for taking the time to listen to the podcast. Now,

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let me be honest with you, I have not watched

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that documentary about Sentatoya Brown, and you would think doing

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research on this case, trying to figure out what angle

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to come at this from, I would have watched that documentary,

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and let me tell you the reason why it didn't.

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I almost did, but then I started thinking about the

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Paradise Lost documentaries that were on HBO about the West

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Memphis Three. They were highly one sided. There was a

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lot of evidence they didn't put in that documentary on purpose.

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They wanted it to have this sort of controversial slant

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to it, and mission accomplished. It did exactly what they

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intended for it to do. The West Memphis Three are

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not in prison anymore. Still guilty of murder for the record,

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but they're not in prison. So that's why I didn't

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watch this one. I thought, if there's any chance that

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this documentary could have some sort of slant on it.

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I don't want to watch it before I do this episode.

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So now that I've done this episode, I am going

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to go back and watch that documentary. And because of

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that documentary is the reason why I did this episode.

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Because someone saw that and said, hey, Joe should do

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a ten Minute Murder episode about this case. They sent

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me an email, and here we are today. So if

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you've got a case that you'd like me to talk about,

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whether there's a documentary on it or not, Joe at

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ten minute Murder dot com. That's my email address. That's

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how you can let me know about the cases you'd

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like me to cover. If you're a new listener to

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the podcast, welcome, hit subscribe wherever you'd like to listen

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up on all the back episodes and see the new

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ones first when they come out. I mentioned the email.

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Also social media, if you've got Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, threads, TikTok,

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all those things, go to the search bar in any

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of those type in ten minute Murder and going to

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pop right up. That's where I put posts about episodes

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that I'm doing. It's current true crime news, everything in between.

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You can find that all any place that you are

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on social media, and that's going to do it. That's

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your episode for today. Thank you so much for listening

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to ten minute Murder

The Complex Case of Cyntoia Brown

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