In 2004, 16-year-old Cyntoia Brown shot and killed a man. She was working as a prostitute and the man she killed had allegedly solicited her for sex.

Under Tennessee law, individuals are allowed to use force, including deadly force, if they reasonably perceive a threat to themselves or others. The law allows for the use force proportionate to the threat and specifies that an individual has no obligation to retreat before using force.

Based on that definition of self-defense, Brown shouldn’t be in prison today. She was a young girl constantly surrounded by danger. She was in a strange setting with a man she did not know but whom she knew to be armed. She was frightened when he reached suddenly under his bed and acted to save her life.

It’s a defense that might have held up if Brown was a vigilante in Florida or a police officer anywhere. But Brown was neither; she was a sex-worker and, according to the state of Tennessee, a sex-worker has no claim to self-defense. Specifically, the law states that self-defense applies in the scenario described above notwithstanding, “the person using force is engaged in an unlawful activity.” That provision alone practically sealed Brown’s fate.

Read the full article on Cyntoia Brown by Donovan X. Ramsey at The Marshall Project