Judge sends sex trafficking victim who fought back to prison. How is that justice?

Picture this: A Black girl says a white man sexually abused and trafficked her, starting when she was only 16 years old. Police arrest the man, charging him with sexually abusing several young Black girls, including victims as young as 12. He is released without bail, and four months later, the now 17-year-old trafficking victim shoots and kills him.

What would you see as justice in such a case? Free the trafficking victim because she fought back against her abuser? Sentence her to decades in prison? Whatever you think is the right answer, you probably won't land where the judge in this case did.

On Monday, a Wisconsin judge sentenced Chrystul Kizer, now 24, to 11 years in prison for reckless homicide in the 2018 shooting death of Randall Volar, 34.

Given the abuse and trauma that Kizer says she suffered because of Volar, the sentencing seems extreme, even though it's far less than the 30-year maximum.

Kizer's case raises questions about immunity and plea deals, justice and homicide, race and gender.

If Kizer is the victim, did she get justice? If Volar is the victim, did he? A lot is going on in this story, but little of it has to do with justice.

How a sex trafficking victim became a convicted killer

Police already were investigating Volar for sexual abuse of adolescent girls when Kizer says he contacted her through a website where she was advertising sex for money. Kizer says she peddled sex to help feed her siblings.

Kizer says Volar sexually abused and trafficked her, even video recording himself abusing her. In early 2018, after police found evidence that Volar had abused underage girls, he was arrested, charged and released without bail.

In June 2018, Kizer says Volar tried to abuse her again, but the 17-year-old had reached a breaking point. She shot and killed Volar. She then set his house on fire and stole his car. Kizer was arrested and charged with first-degree intentional homicide, arson and car theft.

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This May, she pleaded guilty to second-degree reckless homicide to avoid the possibility of an even more severe sentence. She also admitted to wrongdoing.

"I don’t know where to start, but I’m asking for your generosity in my sentence today," Kizer said to the court before her sentencing on Monday. "I understand that I committed sins that put the Volar family in a lot of pain."

In sentencing her, Kenosha County Judge David Wilk acknowledged the abuse she suffered but did not think it justified killing Volar.

"The court is well aware of your circumstances surrounding your relationship with Mr. Volar," Wilk said. "You are not permitted to be the instrument of his reckoning. To hold otherwise is to endorse a descent into lawlessness and chaos.”

What happened to immunity via a sex trafficking defense?

Do trafficking victims have a right to immunity for crimes they committed while suffering from the extreme fear and coercion that often come with being forced to have sex with strangers? According to laws in Wisconsin and other states, they do.

Kizer's attorneys argued she couldn't be held criminally liable for Volar's death under a 2008 Wisconsin law that exempts victims of offenses committed "as a direct result” of sex trafficking.

But Judge Wilk said Kizer had "abandoned that claim" and sought clemency after pleading guilty to reckless homicide.

Justice system fails

This is a story of a failed justice system. There should be justice for a homicide victim. But there also should be justice for victims of sex trafficking who are trying to flee a life of abuse. That is what Wisconsin's 2008 sex-trafficking law is supposed to be about.

I'm curious about what the judge would have had Kizer do, knowing the system had failed her by allowing Volar to be released without bail and return to abuse her? Should she have gone to police and risk retribution from Volar? Should she remain and make the best of it despite the abuse?

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A gut-wrenching 2022 documentary, the "State of Alabama vs. Brittany Smith," shows that when it comes to self-defense and abuse, laws are often skewed by gender. The Netflix documentary reports that "the most extensive study of Stand Your Ground cases found that women were twice as likely to be convicted as men when claiming self-defense in their homes."

That is horrifying for women trying to escape an abusive dynamic, and renders the laws virtually useless in these circumstances.

Kizer's ordeal is similar to a case that unfolded in Tennessee. Cyntoia Brown was 16 when she killed Johnny Allen in 2004. Allen had paid to have sex with Brown, and she shot and killed him because she thought he was pulling a gun on her.

Brown, also African American, was sentenced to life in prison for murder and robbery. After years of public outcry, including appeals from celebrities, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam commuted Brown's sentence. She was released from prison in 2019.

The facts of Kizer's case and sentencing raise uncomfortable but vital questions: What if Kizer were a man? What if she were white? Would the sentence be the same? Is our justice system truly blind to race, age and gender? Why did she feel she had to turn to prostitution to feed her siblings?

Given the circumstances of her case, it's hard to see how an 11-year prison sentence constitutes justice.

Our criminal justice system sends mixed messages to victims: Sex trafficking is an egregious crime, and the government clearly has a vital responsibility to track down sex traffickers and to protect their victims.

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But when a woman reacts in self-defense to abuse or sex trafficking, why is she suddenly seen as a perpetrator who exacted vigilante justice on her abuser?

Kizer's sentencing ignores the right to self-defense and the immunity supposedly granted to sex-trafficking victims who act to protect themselves.

Nicole Russell is an opinion columnist with USA TODAY. She lives in Texas with her four kids. Sign up for her newsletter, The Right Track, and get it delivered to your inbox.

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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sex trafficking victim faces years in prison. How is that justice?