On April 17, 2020, Governor Mike DeWine commuted the sentence of sex-trafficking victim Alexis Martin. While a juvenile, Martin was involved in a robbery and house burglary gone awry in which her trafficker was shot and killed, although she was not the shooter. Martin was bound over to adult court where she pleaded guilty to murder and several other crimes and was sentenced on March 30, 2015 to 21-years-to-life. The Supreme Court of Ohio upheld the convictions and sentence in an August 14, 2018 merit decision written by Justice Judy French. Read the background of the case, including the complicated facts of the crimes, and an analysis of the merit decision here.

The effort to obtain Alexis’s release was led by her attorneys Jennifer Kinsely, Associate Dean of Professional Development, Professor of Law and Director of Field Placement at Salmon P. Chase College of Law and Sasha Naiman, Deputy Director of the Ohio Justice and Policy Center.

According to Alexis’s lawyers, while in prison Alexis obtained her GED, is a level 2 certified HVAC technician, and is a certified dog trainer.  More importantly, Kinsley and Naiman explained that Alexis has worked with prison officials for years creating and leading community groups and programming for human trafficking groups.  She has mentored dozens of other survivors inside the prison. She has spent significant time addressing her own PTSD and the trauma caused by sex trafficking, through therapy and self-study. Alexis has made a reentry plan, ensuring stable housing, ongoing treatment, volunteering opportunities, and employment after her release, and she is excited to become an asset in the community. Alexis is supposed to be released this week.