The Myth of Equal Justice

By Mildred Robertson

Cyntoia Brown killed a man. She will spend at least 51 years in prison if her sentence stands. It’s a familiar story…a troubled youth suffering from lack of parental support, trapped in the sex trade with no hope of escape. Brown says that she feared that the 43-year-old man that purchased her for sex would kill her. Prosecutors argued that she only wanted to rob him and chose to charge her as an adult with first degree felony murder and aggravated robbery. She got two concurrent life sentences. She was 16 years old. 

While there are many reasons why Cyntoia should not have been tried as an adult, including the fact that she was an underage victim of abuse, sex trafficking and suffered from a fetal alcohol disorder due to an alcoholic mother who abandoned her, her case is representative of the unequal balance of justice in our country.

According to a report submitted by “The Sentencing Project to the United Nations in April 2018, African Americans are more likely than white Americans to be arrested. Once arrested they are more likely to be convicted and to experience lengthy prison sentences.

It is conceivable that, had Cyntoia, been prep-school Becky from Manhattan, the courts would have viewed her differently. Her tragic life would likely have engendered sympathy and she would have been viewed as a victim rather than a predator. This is evidenced by numerous cases where the courts have shown leniency to young people who have committed crimes.

While Brown languishes in jail for killing her molester, Jacob Anderson, a former Baylor University fraternity president accused of raping a woman at a fraternity party avoided jail time as a Texas judge accepted a plea bargain that allowed 23-year-old Anderson to plead no contest to the lesser charge of unlawful restraint. By pleading no-contest Anderson did not have to admit guilt nor offer a defense.  

In a similar case, a California judge sentenced a former Stanford University swimmer to a six-month jail sentence for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman. Prosecutors had asked for six years for 20-year old Brock Turner. Superior Court Judge Aaron Persky said that Turner's age and lack of criminal history made him feel that imposing a six-month jail sentence with probation was appropriate. “A prison sentence would have a severe impact on him," Persky said.

It seems that the judicial system is comfortable looking the other way when white, middle and upper-middle class white men commit crimes, but find it difficult to find compassion for people of color who run afoul of the law. In 2016 Black youth accounted for 15% of all U.S. children yet made up 35% of juvenile arrests in that year.

The Sentencing Project found that one out of every three black boys born in 2001 could expect to go to prison in his lifetime. For Latinos it is one of every six, compared to just one out of 17 white boys in the same category. While ethnic disparities among women was found to be less substantial, they remain relevant.

The project determined that the United States has developed two distinct criminal justice systems…one for wealthy people and another for poor people and people of color. While America says that Lady Liberty is fair and balanced, minorities and the poor commonly don’t have access to the best lawyers who can defend their constitutional rights. This is evidenced by the overwhelmingly disproportionate incarceration of the poor and people of color.

Cyntoia’s case has gained attention because of several celebrities that have come to her defense. It is possible that the governor of Tennessee may pardon her. Let’s hope that happens. But that will not mitigate the myriad number of people incarcerated wrongly, or who suffer under overly harsh sentences because they are poor or black. It seems that justice is neither blind nor balanced in the United States. It appears that equal justice is a myth.