Tennessee Parole Board Is Split on Recommending Clemency for Cyntoia Brown

In January, advocacy groups including the Juvenile Law Center, Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth and the Center for Law, Brain and Behavior filed a “friend of the court” brief to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals asking that charges be reversed.

“Her sentence violates recent Supreme Court decisions like Miller v. Alabama and Montgomery v. Louisiana, where the court ruled that all but the rarest of juveniles — those who are permanently incorrigible — deserve a chance to re-enter society before the expiration of their sentence,” Marsha Levick of the Juvenile Law Center, said in a news release.