Facing possible prison sentence, Pieper Lewis seeks pardon from Gov. Kim Reynolds

Facing a hearing May 31 on whether she will go to prison, Pieper Lewis is seeking a pardon from Gov. Kim Reynolds.

The Des Moines sex trafficking victim, who stabbed to death a man she said repeatedly raped her, "deserves to do more than survive in a cell," says a Change.org online petition calling for the pardon, started on her behalf. "Pieper Lewis deserves a full life, outside of the prison industrial complex."

Lewis was initially charged with first-degree murder in the June 2020 death of Zachary Brooks. But following a Des Moines Register investigation of her case, prosecutors acknowledged that Lewis, a runaway who was 15 at the time of the slaying, had been a victim of sex trafficking and that Brooks ― to whom she had been sent by a pimp in exchange for marijuana ― had repeatedly raped her.

In a deal with prosecutors, she pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and willful injury, and in a September hearing that received national news coverage, Polk County Judge David Porter gave her a deferred judgment and ordered her to serve five years of probation at a Des Moines transitional facility for women.

She violated her probation in November, when she cut off her GPS tracking device and walked from the center. Arrested days later, she pleaded guilty in March to a charge of escape. She later told the Register that she had been struggling in the facility, which she said was filled with people stuck in a criminal lifestyle and drug use. She also said she felt unsafe and cut off from her support network after being quarantined when one of her roommates came down with COVID-19.

In the coming hearing, Porter will decide whether Lewis, now 18, will be formally convicted and serve up to 21 years in prison, or be allowed to continue on probation, perhaps at a different facility ― though he had warned her at her sentencing that she was receiving a second chance and would not get a third one.

Lewis told KCCI-TV in an interview aired Tuesday that she is instead asking Reynolds to pardon her. The online petition was started by Des Moines Black Liberation Movement member Jalesha Johnson. She recounts Lewis' story, noting that when, under Iowa law, Lewis was ordered as part of her sentence to pay Brooks' estate $150,000, people around the country chipped in to raise far more than that amount.

"All of America was in an outrage at how unjustly Iowa was treating her," it says. "It is our hope, all the people who shared her story, donated to her cause and raised awareness ― will once again wrap their hands around Pieper Lewis."

More than 600 people had signed the petition as of Wednesday afternoon.

Reached Wednesday, Johnson said via text message that she wasn't sure whether Lewis had filed a formal request for a pardon.

"I know she has reached out to the governor's office, via letter writing ― and hopes to meet with her soon," Johnson wrote.

The five-page pardon application form asks for details including the applicant's marital status, sobriety, tax payments and record of volunteer service. It also requires a number of supporting documents, including proof of payment of court costs, fines and restitution, credit history and letters of recommendation from the prosecutor, judge and sheriff involved in the case, past and current employers and at least three non-relatives.

Reynolds' office did not immediately respond to phone and online messages, nor did Lewis' attorney, Matthew Sheeley.

This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: Sex-trafficking victim Pieper Lewis seeks pardon from Iowa governor