As previously reported by REVOLT, in November 2022, Iowa teen Pieper Lewis escaped from the Fresh Start Women’s Center. Days later, she was captured and booked into the Polk County Jail. The teen was in custody for fatally stabbing a man who she claimed sex trafficked and raped her.
After killing her alleged rapist at 15 years old in June 2020, Lewis faced 21 years in prison for pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury. During her 2022 trial, Polk County Judge David Porter placed her on probation instead of sentencing her to prison. Yesterday (May 31), she was resentenced following her escape and placed on probation again, according to AP News. Last year, Porter compassionately told the 18-year-old that if she completed her term, he would expunge her record. However, that option has since been denied.
I'm at the Polk County Courthouse where Pieper Lewis, a Des Moines teen whose story rose to national attention in September when a judge ordered her to pay $150,000 to her rapists estate, could be sent to prison after leaving a women's transitional center without permission. pic.twitter.com/vU1ai6kO1D
— Philip Joens (@Philip_Joens) May 31, 2023
“I indicated to you last year you’ve asked for a second chance. You don’t get a third. I stand by that. There are consequences for your actions. You have now been convicted of two felony offenses,” Porter told Lewis. Polk County attorney Kimberly Graham felt for the Iowa teen’s struggles and informed the judge that her office “sees her as a human being.” In September 2022, after a court ordered her to pay $150,000 in restitution to the family of the man who allegedly raped her, one of Lewis’ high school teachers started a GoFundMe account for the pupil. Donations exceeded the ask. “Praying for your healing and your peace, and of course, for your success,” one contributor wrote.
“The team I have now is my biggest support, and I need to stop fighting them. I refuse to fail, and I refuse to let the system fail me. I’ve developed a plan and an option, so I will succeed this time,” Lewis said to the judge before a courtroom yesterday.
Why should she be in prison,she’s the victim, she should be living a life and not even on probation, the system that young ladies life, she was 14 she been Punished enough
— Dinah White (@DinahWh16427029) May 31, 2023