Netflix just dropped the first trailer for its upcoming crime documentary, Murder to Mercy. The film will tell the story of Cyntoia Brown, a woman who was released from prison in 2019 after 15 years for the aggravated robbery and first-degree murder of 43-year-old Johnny Allen who solicited her for sex when she was 16 years old. The fatal shooting has long been argued as self-defense by Cyntoia and her avid supporters, as she believed the man was going to kill her. Cyntoia has also maintained that she was "forced into prostitution" in the first place by a drug dealer named Kutthroat., with whom she was in an abusive relationship.
"When I was 16, I did a horrible thing," Cyntoia remarks in the trailer for Murder to Mercy, which Netflix released on Wednesday. "I do pray that you show me mercy and that you give me a second chance." Cyntoia's case caught the public's attention around 2017, as celebrities like Rihanna and Kim Kardashian began to speak out against the injustice she had faced by ending up in prison in the first place, let alone for so many years.
Cyntoia was released last year at the age of 31 after she was granted clemency by Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam. The documentary, directed by Daniel H. Birman, aims to give a more in-depth look at her story, and will be released on April 29th.