Survivor of Human Trafficking Alexis Martin Freed After 11 Years Behind Bars Following Pro Bono Effort by Dykema

Today, pursuant to judicial release, Judge Oldfield of the Summit County Court of Common Pleas ordered the release of Alexis Martin, a survivor of human trafficking, from the Dayton Correctional Facility, 10 years ahead of her original 21-years-to-life sentence. The decision follows the court’s June agreed order vacating Alexis’s murder conviction and substituting a lesser offense of involuntary manslaughter.

The court’s ruling came following a petition filed by a team of Dykema attorneys—Mark Chutkow, Emma Blackwood, Brooke Bohlen, and Kyle Asher, and paralegal Sherry Medley—who argued that Alexis’s constitutional right to effective assistance of counsel had been violated when she was not informed of protections available under the Ohio Safe Harbor Act, which is intended to shield child victims of trafficking from prosecution.

Alexis Martin is now 27 years old. She has spent over 11 years in the criminal justice system for her role in a 2013 robbery, which resulted in the death of Angelo Kerney at the hands of one of the other participants. At the time of the incident, Alexis was just 15 years old and was being sex-trafficked by Kerney, a 35-year-old drug dealer and human trafficker who had raped, abused, and sold her to other men for sex.

Before her arrest, Alexis endured years of abuse, neglect, and severe mental illness, resulting in at least a dozen suicide attempts requiring hospitalization. Despite these circumstances and the intent of Ohio’s Safe Harbor Act to provide diversion for children like Alexis, she was prosecuted in adult court and convicted of felony murder.

Alexis’s story became widely known by advocates seeking criminal justice reform when Kim Kardashian spotlighted Alexis’s case in her documentary, “The Justice Project.”

“This is a great day for justice in Ohio, and an especially great day for a young woman who finally has a chance to rebuild her life,” said Mark Chutkow, leader of Dykema’s Government Investigations and Corporate Compliance practice. “I’m so grateful that my colleagues and I could play a role in helping Alexis gain her freedom—and we know she’ll use her voice to help other young girls caught in the same nightmare.”

This critical advocacy work would not have been possible without the generous support of the Sisters of Charity Foundation, the Office for Justice Policy (OJP), and the Human Trafficking Clinic at the University of Michigan Law School, whose steadfast commitment to justice reform and survivor-centered legal representation made this effort possible.