Where sex trafficking survivor Cyntoia Brown is now 21 years after shooting man who had sex with her aged 16

More than two decades ago, a judge handed Cyntoia Brown-Long a life sentence for shooting dead a man who had allegedly paid her for sex.

She was just 16-years-old at the time and 'many, many years' away from considering herself to be a victim of sex trafficking when she was locked up for at least five decades.

Now aged 37, she is a free woman after Dan Birman's documentary, Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story, renewed interest in her case.

The film - which detailed Cyntoia's tough childhood, troubled teen years and how she was forced into prostitution and sex trafficked - caught the attention of a number of celebrities.

These high-profile people ended up playing a pivotal role in securing her freedom and urging officials in Tennessee to urgently reconsider her punishment.

Who is Cyntoia Brown?

She was slapped with a life sentence when she was just 16-years-old (Nashville Police Department)

Cyntoia Brown's name became known across the US after she was convicted of first-degree murder, felony murder and aggravated robbery in 2004.

The then-teenager was told she would not be eligible for parole until she was in her late 60s, after being found guilty of killing Johnny Allen by shooting him in the back of the head.

She claimed that she had pulled the trigger in self-defence, telling a Tennessee court that the estate agent had hired her for sex when she was aged just 16 and that she feared for her life.

However, prosecutors argued that she had shot him while he was asleep before stealing his wallet, guns, and his car.

At the time, Cyntoia was being sex trafficked by a man named Garion L. McGlothen, who forced her to have intercourse with so-called 'clients' to make him money.

Despite the circumstances, she was ultimately tried as an adult for the crimes and sentenced to life without the possibility of parole until 2055.

Cyntoia began serving her time at the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center, a maximum security facility in Nashville.

How did Cyntoia Brown gain her freedom?

Cyntoia would have been eligible for parole in her late 60s if she was still incarcerated (Paras Griffin/Getty Images)

Cyntoia had been locked up for more than a dozen years before focus finally fell back on her case.

In wake of Birman's 2011 documentary about her harrowing life story, her case ended up going viral a few years later in November 2017.

Celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Rihanna, Snoop Dogg, Lebron James and rapper TI all called for her release, as did activists who urged officials in Tennessee to reconsider her sentence.

Incredibly, the power of the people - and some A listers - ended up moving mountains, as the Tennessee Board of Parole announced it would hold a hearing on Brown's clemency petition in March 2018.

Only two percent of clemency applicants in the US state are granted this.

Eventually, Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam granted Cyntoia clemency 'after careful consideration of what is a tragic and complex case'.

Citing her unfair sentencing and how she had been rehabilitated during her 15 years incarcerated, he commuted the remainder of her sentence.

The family of Allen said their 'hearts were broken' by Haslam's decision, adding: "We feel Johnny never got to defend himself. We never got to be a voice to him."

Where is Cyntoia Brown now?

Cyntoia pictured with her husband Jaime (Instagram/@cyntoiabrownofficial)

Cyntoia has turned her life around since gaining her freedom and is now an advocate for criminal justice reform and victims of sex trafficking.

While behind bars, she earned a college degree and also married musician and entrepreneur Jaime Long, who she celebrated her sixth anniversary with earlier this year.

Cyntoia, who describes herself as a 'speaker and author', also penned a memoir about her experience titled Free Cyntoia: My Search for Redemption in the American Prison System.

Speaking to CBS News in 2019, she explained that she only began to see herself as a victim of sex trafficking when she was in her late twenties.

"It took many, many years," Cyntoia explained: "For so long, you know I had thought, 'No, they said that I was a teenage prostitute. I knew what I was doing'.

"In some way, everybody is just one bad decision, one mistake, one accident from being caught up in the justice system," she added.

"We all should be invested in making sure that it's treating people the way they should be treated, the way that you would want to be treated."

She shared a similar sentiment during an interview with NBC in the same year, explaining she now understood how she had been manipulated by older men when she was a child.

"You meet these young girls who are in these situations, and they don’t view themselves as being pimped,” she said.

"They don’t view their trafficker as their trafficker. They think, ‘This is my boyfriend.’ And that’s exactly what I thought."