Episode 021 - Transcript Leslie: This is Someone Like Me, End Slavery Tennessee's podcast, working to educate listeners about human trafficking and empower survivors of the crime by telling their stories. I'm Leslie, your host. We are so excited about this episode. It touches on so many of the things we've already been talking about this season, and provides such a powerful example of how sex trafficking so often starts with youth vulnerability. This survivor story episode covers manipulation, grooming, societal pressures, and broken expectations. All of it. Cyntoia Brown is a name you may have heard in 2019 when social media was trending with the hashtag #freecyntoiabrown. Her story was shared by celebrities like Kerry Washington and Kim Kardashian, when she was up for clemency in Tennessee while serving a life sentence for killing a man who had purchased her for sex when she was 16. After a series of hearings, Governor Bill Haslam granted clemency to Cyntoia in 2019. And they actually met later that year at an End Slavery Tennessee gala. Cyntoia Brown Long has been on 20/20, The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, the Today's Show, her story has been featured in a Netflix special, and she even wrote an autobiography. You can learn all of the details about her case and trial with a Google search. We won't be talking in depth about all of it on this episode. Cyntoia will share a little bit about her transition out of prison. And then we'll zoom out and hear about how trafficking became a part of her story. But we'll also talk about how she didn't identify as a trafficking victim at first, and how she came to understand that she was trafficked while in prison. There are so many parts of her teenage experience that are incredibly important when we seek to understand how youth vulnerability plays a huge role in trafficking and how to work to prevent it. And then as always, we want to hear from survivors about hope, and what's next for them. Since 2019, Cyntoia has done a lot. She's gotten married, has started the JFAM Foundation, which has spurred the G.L.I.T.T.E.R Project and the YES Council, both of which you'll hear more about in this episode. Producer Marissa Brownell and I were blown away by Cyntoia’s strong faith in God despite all the difficult parts of her personal history, and the ways in which her completely unique experience has so many parallels to those of the youth Marissa works with on a daily basis. So an extra special part of this episode is when Marissa asks Cyntoia questions from some of the youth she's working with at the moment. End Slavery Tennessee loves collaborating with survivors, and we respect and support giving them a voice and platform to share when they're ready. You can actually listen to our first episode in this season about trauma-informed care, and how it affects even who we interview for this podcast. In this episode, you're going to hear Cyntoia Brown Long's voice, her individual experience, opinion and perspective. We're so grateful to get to introduce you to Cyntoia Brown Long. *music interlude* Leslie: Well, Marissa, let's start off with some Would You Rather questions to get things rolling? Marissa: So would you rather have a rewind button or a pause button on your life? Episode 021 - Transcript Cyntoia: Hmm, I would rather have a pause button. Marissa: Why? Cyntoia: I don't know. It seems like things just go by so fast. And like, especially now I'm just enjoying like where I'm at, you know, in life with the work that I'm doing, my marriage, just, if I could just pause that, and just like, stay here. You know what I mean? Like, I would love it. So… Leslie: That’s sweet. That's a great perspective. Marissa: All right, would you rather lose the ability to cry completely or cry every day for 20 minutes randomly? Cyntoia: I would probably do away with crying just because I hate what it does to my makeup. *laughter* Cyntoia: I’m just saying. I'm less of a crier and more of a talker. So like if I'm feeling something I'll talk about it sometimes for hours definitely more than 20 minutes a day. *laughter* Cyntoia: So I can do without crying. Marissa: Awesome. I can do without crying too. Leslie: I don't honestly I would rather cry for 20 minutes randomly every day. Crying is just, sometimes it feels so good. Marissa: It feels good, but gosh it gives me a headache and then I got all snotty. Leslie: Yeah. Okay, well, there's that. That’s a great visual. Marissa: Last one, would you rather give up social media or eat the same dinner for the rest of your life? Cyntoia: I'd rather give up social media because I promise I can really just do without it. Leslie: Yeah, the worst. Marissa: Yeah. Episode 021 - Transcript Leslie: Well, good. I'm glad we're all in consensus there. So Cyntoia, your story has been told so many times by many people, and it's received national attention. All these people tweeted about it. And we're not focusing so much on that part of your story for this conversation, but could you give us a brief overview of what your story is, and how it came to receive such national attention. Cyntoia: So when I was 16 years old, I was set to be tried as an adult, here in Nashville for shooting and killing a man that had picked me up for sex. When you're tried as an adult, you go to the court system in Davidson County, just like any other adult would, you're eligible for the same sentences and everything. But I was 16 years old, I had never had a driver's license, still don't have a license, have a permit, but not a license. Never went to prom or anything like that. And so I mean, I was just a kid. And I was faced with, like losing the rest of my life as I knew it. I went to trial, and that was a horrific experience, just having to sit there for several days while people who don't even know you are sitting there talking to these other strangers who are going to decide your fate about what a horrible person they think you are. Leslie: The jury, just sitting there staring at you the whole time. Cyntoia: Yeah. Leslie: Wow. Cyntoia: And you're facing like them like head on. And you're kind of looking at them, like trying to, like, communicate like, bro, like, don't, don't sentence me like this. But it's such a weird experience. It's very traumatic. So about five days, I was in trial, and they ended up finding me guilty of felony murder, which, if you don't know what felony murder is here in the state of Tennessee, if there's a killing, it doesn't matter what the circumstances are. But if there's a felony that's happened and attached to it at some point, that can mean that if you're riding down the street in a stolen car, and you accidentally hit somebody, you could be convicted of felony murder, life in prison. Leslie: I gotcha. Cyntoia: So I was convicted of felony murder. I was also convicted of premeditated first- degree murder, and especially aggravated robbery, and sentenced to life in prison on the spot. Leslie: At 16. Cyntoia: At 16 years old. Well, I was 18 when I was actually going through the trial. Episode 021 - Transcript Leslie: Oh ok. Cyntoia: But it was from, stemming from 16, because it takes a long time for you to actually get before the jury. You have a lot of preliminary hearings, a lot of waiting. But yeah, stemming from what happened when I was 16. Leslie: Okay, yeah. Cyntoia: So I was sentenced to life in prison. And, you know, I remember going back to my cell, and I'm like, Man, this Nah, I'm not just taking this laying down. And you know, I just cut the lights off. And I just started talking to God. And I was like, “Please just let me out of here. Whatever it takes just, I don't want to spend the rest of my life in prison. And I'll get out and I will tell the world about you.” Like, I'll just commit myself to that if He would just let me out of here. And that was back in 2006. Leslie: Okay. Cyntoia: And I would file several appeals after that. And each time I would be told no. So my faith just pretty much started to die. I remember, there was a time when I would just go around telling everyone you know, God's not real. That's just something we make up in our mind to help us cope with things. But yeah, He's not real. It's not real. I don't believe in that. And really, I was angry because I felt like He didn't listen to my prayer that I was, you know, sitting here serving a life sentence. And it seemed like I was gonna actually serve that sentence.