After renewed interest in her case in 2013, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam commuted her original sentence to 15 years and Brown was released on August 7, 2019.

Her fight for freedom from prison is documented in the Netflix special Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story (2020).

[6] Although raised in a loving home, Brown dropped out of elementary school and eventually began to have encounters with the juvenile court system.

[6] On the night of August 6, 2004, 16-year-old Brown met 43-year-old Johnny Michael Allen in the parking lot of a Sonic Drive-In on Murfreesboro Road in Nashville, Tennessee.

[17] However, the lead prosecutor in the case, Jeff Burks stipulated that Allen picked Brown up to pay her for sex, stating, “That was a fact from start to finish.”[18] In court documents, another minor who was a waitress at a local restaurant claimed that she and the other young teens at the restaurant felt uncomfortable whenever they had to serve Allen.

Prosecutors took the stance that Brown had not been in danger and that she had murdered Allen as he slept naked in bed in order to rob him.

The nurse claimed that Brown jumped over her desk, grabbed her hair and face, and hit her, giving her several bruises and abrasions.

… I executed him.”[27][30][31] At trial, defense attorneys argued that 43-year-old Allen had a "dark side" and was intent on sexually assaulting 16-year-old Brown when he got in the bed with her, naked.

[citation needed] There was another witness, a 17-year-old girl who worked at a restaurant, whom the judge did not allow the jury to hear, labeling her testimony "irrelevant."

I’d love to take you out sometime, so let me know.” The witness further testified that other teens who worked at the restaurant felt uncomfortable serving Allen because of his flirtatious behavior with them.

[40][41] The producer of Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story, Dan Birman, continued to follow Brown's case and other instances of juveniles sentenced to long terms in a seven-part online video series in 2016–2017, "Sentencing Children," done in collaboration with the PBS series Independent Lens and reporter Anita Wadhwani at The Tennessean newspaper.

[42][43] Unused footage from these projects was repurposed into a Netflix Original documentary titled, "Murder to Mercy: The Cyntoia Brown Story.

"[44] While still in prison, Brown married musician and entrepreneur Jaime Long, CEO of JFAM Music, Inc. and co-owner of a Texas healthcare business who performed under the name J.

[45][46][47] On November 21, 2017, Brown's case went viral following several high-profile celebrity social media posts expressing outrage over her sentence.

At the hearing, several witnesses that knew Brown from prison testified on her behalf, including Lipscomb University faculty, her former prosecutor Preston Shipp, prison employees, local victim rights advocates, and a local nonprofit leader who ran a mentoring group for at risk teens with Brown.

He told the board that he did not believe there was any evidence to support the claim that Brown had been trafficked since she was 12 and that Allen's killing was unjustified.

[49][50] On December 6, 2018, the Tennessee Supreme Court answered a question of law in conjunction with Brown's federal habeas corpus appeal, stating that she would be eligible for parole after serving 51 years.

[53] Detective Charles Robinson wrote a seven-page letter urging Governor Haslam not to give Brown clemency.

He also wrote "At the beginning of this investigation, I considered the possibility that Cyntoia Brown was justified in killing Johnny Allen.

"[57] Since her release from prison, Cyntoia Brown Long has conducted numerous interviews sharing her insight and critique of the criminal justice system.

She has been the featured keynote speaker for different groups across the country, sharing her testimony of surviving domestic minor sex trafficking and her experience with the criminal justice system.

[58] The ACLU brought in Brown Long to head their national campaign urging Governors to use their executive power of clemency to combat systemic injustice and racism.

[45][46][47] In addition to her own work speaking about her experiences, Brown's life journey has been of interest to notable media giants.