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Cyntoia Brown-Long, a criminal justice reform advocate, released from prison last year following the commutation of her life sentence for killing a man, is the subject of Netflix's latest true crime documentary, Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story. Here's the story of Cyntoia Brown-Long's imprisonment and eventual release and what she's saying about the new documentary that details her journey. 

Brown-Long, now 32, served 15 years in a state prison in Tennessee after killing Johnny Allen, a 43-year-old real estate agent from Nashville. In 2004, Allen picked up Brown-Long, agreed to pay her $150 for sex, and took her to his house. (Brown-Long is her married name; at the time of the incident, she went by Cyntoia Brown.) Brown-Long, then 16, shot and killed Allen while they were in bed; she told police she thought he was pulling out a gun and that she acted in self-defense. She also said she had been forced into prostitution by a man called "Cut Throat." Though she was a minor at Allen's murder, Brown-Long was tried as an adult. In court, prosecutors questioned her claim of self-defense, arguing instead that Brown-Long killed Allen to rob him. In 2006, Brown-Long was sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of first-degree murder and aggravated robbery, which would have prevented her from parole eligibility until 2055. But during her years in prison, the world saw some shifts—most notably, the #MeToo movement and a national push for criminal justice reform. Public perception of Brown-Long shifted, too, from a sex worker who was in control of all her choices to an underage girl who had been used by men who held more power. Brown-Long's case began receiving attention from celebrities and advocates, who argued that a life sentence was too harsh a punishment for someone who committed a crime as a minor. Under the conditions, Brown-Long was then experiencing. Celebrities including Rihanna, Kim Kardashian West, Ashley Judd, and Cara Delevigne campaigned in 2017 for her freedom. Last August, 

Brown-Long was released from prison after then Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam granted her clemency in January 2019. Facts about Brown-Long's life come out in spurts—we learn she was adopted as a young child by a woman named Ellenette Brown and that her biological mother, Georgina Mitchell, drank throughout her pregnancy, which may have left Brown-Long with fetal alcohol syndrome, potentially affecting her decision-making abilities, according to experts hired by Brown-Long's defense team to assess her during court proceedings. Although Brown provided a loving home for her daughter, the film shows that Brown-Long grew out of control as an adolescent. She ran away from home, began taking drugs, and was physically and sexually abused by "Cut Throat," who also sold her into prostitution. Brown-Long never denies that she killed Allen, and the picture she paints about what the rest of her life looked like at the time is grim, filled with abuse from the men she looked to for safety and few resources to turn to otherwise.