Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam  granted clemency  to Cyntoia Brown Monday.

Brown, an alleged sex trafficking victim, is serving a life sentence for killing a man when she was 16 years old.  Brown will be released from prison and put on parole supervision August 7th after  serving 15 years  on a first degree murder charge.  Brown claims  she was raped and forced into the sex-trade by a pimp.  In 2006 , she was sentenced to life in prison after she shot one of her clients in what she claims was self defense.  Brown served more than a decade in prison before her case caught  the attention of several celebrities  and gained national notoriety with the hashtag #FreeCyntoiaBrown.

Brown was also the subject of a 2011 PBS documentary entitled  "Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story." Governor Haslam said in  a statement  about Brown's case, "Transformation should be accompanied by hope.  So, I am commuting Ms. Brown’s sentence." Brown thanked Governor Haslam for his "mercy" in a  statement of her own  saying, "I will do everything I can to justify your faith in me."