{"id":20816,"date":"2020-05-30T21:32:47","date_gmt":"2020-05-30T21:32:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=20816"},"modified":"2020-06-04T00:00:12","modified_gmt":"2020-06-04T00:00:12","slug":"reflecting-on-the-case-of-cyntoia-brown-talking-with-the-director-of-murder-to-mercy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/reflecting-on-the-case-of-cyntoia-brown-talking-with-the-director-of-murder-to-mercy\/","title":{"rendered":"Reflecting on the case of Cyntoia Brown \u2013 talking with the director of ‘Murder to Mercy’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dan Birman<\/a>, University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Cyntoia Brown walked out of prison in August 2019<\/a> after serving 15 years of a life sentence for a murder she committed when she was 16. Her story is the focus of \u201cMurder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story,\u201d<\/a> a Netflix feature documentary.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dan Birman directed this documentary and another on Cyntoia\u2019s life that aired on PBS in 2011. He is a professor of professional practice<\/a> and teaches documentary at the University of Southern California, Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.<\/em><\/p>\n

What does Cyntoia\u2019s case tell us about the US justice system?<\/h2>\n

Cyntoia Brown\u2019s case follows a complex social and legal path, but her story is common to thousands of young people in the justice system. As of 2017, there were nearly 44,000 juveniles locked up in America<\/a>, and more than two-thirds were black or Latino<\/a>. Many are serving life sentences with and without parole<\/a>. Like Cyntoia, they all have stories of their own \u2013 stories that the law may not be sensitive to.<\/p>\n

How did you come to work with Cyntoia?<\/h2>\n

In January 2004, I gained access to the juvenile justice system in Nashville because I was interested in telling a story about juveniles who commit serious crimes. When Cyntoia was arrested eight months later, I was invited to meet her. At the time, few television networks were interested in such dark subjects, so I went on this journey without a distributor or the resources to produce the project.<\/p>\n