by Amanda McDowell | Oct 28, 2010 | News Slider
On Wednesday evening, Oct. 20, Lipscomb students walked away with much more than a chapel credit. After watching “Me Facing Life: Cyntoia’s Story” in Shamblin Theater, Cyntoia’s powerful life story came to light. The documentary on her life, made over a six-year period, tells of Cyntoia’s past. At 16 years old, Cyntoia Brown, a young woman with a troubled past, was forced to face the reality that the rest of her life would almost certainly be spent behind bars. Now, she is an inmate at the Tennessee Prison for Women and a participant in Lipscomb’s LIFE program. The program, which began in 2007, is dedicated to educating inmates to change their lives for the better. Brown was 16 when she killed Johnny Allen, a 43-year-old Nashvillian who picked her up while she was streetwalking at a Sonic Restaurant. Cyntoia had run away from home and was forced to work as a prostitute for a violent drug dealer. As a result, she encountered Allen on the night of Aug. 6, 2004. After riding with Allen back to his home, Brown began to fear for her safety. Allen had begun talking about guns and his time spent as an army sharp shooter, frightening comments that ultimately led Cyntoia to shoot Allen in the head. Her murder conviction at age 18 led her to the prison cell she now calls home. Cyntoia still claims that she shot Allen in fearful self-defense, after he allegedly reached for a gun. Her fate was then determined, despite family testimony from both her biological and adoptive mothers of a troubled and abusive childhood. Jurors still convicted...
