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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2023 - 2024
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | July 31, 2023 04:13 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Cris Dush and Sen. Kristin Phillips-Hill |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | Affirmative Defense for Victims of Human Trafficking |
| In the near future, we plan to introduce legislation that would give victims of human trafficking access to an affirmative defense for any crimes committed as a direct result of being a victim of human trafficking. It is a tragic tale, often involving young girls and other vulnerable youth, where an adult offers them shelter, food, or money to trick them into engaging in the commercial sex trade. These victims may assault their abusers, steal a vehicle, rob their abusers, or even kill their traffickers to escape their circumstances. Sara Cruzan was 11 years old when she was first groomed, 13 years old when she was first sold for sex, and 16 years old when she shot and killed her trafficker. Cyntoia Brown ran away from her adoptive home and ended up living with an abuser who made her sell herself for sex. She was 16 when she killed a man that bought her for sex. Chrystul Kizer met her trafficker when she was 16. He had molested her multiple times, filmed himself molesting her, and sold her in the sex trade. When she was 17, she went to his house, shot him, burned his house down, and stole his truck. Piper Lewis was a 15-year-old repeat runaway in Iowa. A man offered her shelter, but he trafficked her and sold her for sex multiple times. On one occasion, she was sold off to a man who forced her to drink alcohol and take intoxicants. While she was unconscious, he raped her five times. That man came back and purchased her again, this time, after begging him to stop and him refusing, she stabbed him. These are the most extreme examples, where these children feel the need to kill someone to escape their circumstances. Currently there is an affirmative defense in Pennsylvania law where someone cannot be charged with prostitution if that act is committed as a direct result of their status as a victim of human trafficking. We would like to see this exemption extended to cover victims of human trafficking who are forced to commit other criminal offenses, even those who are so deep in desperation that they have been reduced to a primal response that results in the death of their abuser. Please join us in co-sponsoring this important legislation. |
Introduced as SB890