On May 31st, 18 year-old Pieper Lewis could be sentenced to serve up to 20 years in prison. Her crime? Defending herself from her repeated rapist. From Cyntoia Brown to Chrystul Kizer, trafficked girls and women are trapped in a desperate situations, left with few choices to find safety, and are criminalized when they defend themselves.

Pieper Lewis was 15, homeless, and desperate when she was trafficked to Zachary Brooks, 37. She was threatened by knife point to his apartment, and sold for sex by her trafficker in exchange $50 worth of marijuana. When Brooks fell asleep after repeatedly and violently raping Pieper, she killed him, rightfully stabbing him 30 times and ending her torture.

After initially being charged as an adult with 1st degree murder, Pieper plead guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury. The judge sentenced Pieper to five years’ probation, to be served in a women’s center, and a deferred judgment rather than the potential of 20 years in prison. Outrageously, she was also required to pay $150,000 restitution to her rapist’s family. At sentencing the judge had the audacity to say, “Well, Ms. Lewis, this was the second chance you asked for. You don’t get a third. Do you understand that?”

Any sentence given to Pieper was not a second chance. The system failed to protect Pieper and criminalized her when she defended herself. Her trafficker was not prosecuted, despite selling her off to be raped by multiple men besides Brooks. Pieper did what the Des Moines Police Department was not able to – end her enslavement and abuse.

On November 5th, Pieper again asserted her freedom by cutting off her ankle monitor and walking out of the women’s center where she was serving her probation. Despite her sentence being labeled as probation, Pieper was required to live in and report to a women’s center where she did not feel safe. She was arrested three days later, put in jail, and now awaits resentencing.

Girls and women who defend themselves shouldn’t be thrown in prison. It’s clear that the system isn’t going to protect Pieper, from the Des Moines Police Department who is unable to lock up Pieper’s trafficker to the judge offering “a second chance” in an unsafe halfway house. It is up to the people to demand that Pieper be set free.

Pieper is currently asking for people to sign on a petition for her pardon. Mass Action Defense will post further demands in her case as they are made.