did you get to me governor haslam? >> i did. he is an incredible man, such a strong man of god, very humble, very kind, very intelligent. amy: cyntoia come you got married in prison. talk about what happened. how did you meet him? >> when i tell you god brought me the perfect man. even the way we met, which i detail it further in the book. the way we met is full of god. you can see his hand all and it will step it will be three years in january. from the time we met. we started communicating and comebe married in a year january. amy: he wrote you a letter in prison? clubs we started writing back and forth, started spending hours on the phone. he would visit me in prison. was really there for me. was the person that helped me get through some of those really hard moments. was there. he is my best friend. i love him. amy: and he is standing outside this door right now. >> he is with me wherever i go. amy: as we just have a minute to go, the other cyntoias out there. of course, you are unique. what you left behind and the people yo

after 15 years, cyntoia brown-long was granted clemency by then tennessee governor bill haslam the attention on her case revealing a painful back story it was the moment she prayed for. >> it was like the most amaz >> reporter: but could hardly imagine. >> i could just like exhale. freedom. >> i've sat with people in situations like this, except the difference is they were exonerated they had been wrongfully convicted. that's not your story. >> no, it's not. i'm still a convicted murderer per the law. i won't disappoint you. >> reporter: yet to her supporters, she is looked on as a victim too >> it's been really smooth. >> reporter: at age 16, cyntoia shot and killed a man who had picked her up one night. just weeks earlier she said she had been forced into prostitution by another man. ovs having been raped by different men, you know. >> reporter: in fact, she was being trafficked for sex >> i thought this is my boyfriend. i'm in a relationship. i'm his bonnie he's my clyde and this is just what i'm doing i'm playing a role in a relationsh >> you didn't see yourself as a victim >> not at all

and governor haslam and they are a hallmark there and investment in the greatest resources in the human capital. i do think the k to 12 model in education in america is obsolete. i think we should move to a pre-k to 14 model. there are comport surrey high school reports and middle class for the past hundred years that are insufficient from the next ten or at least 50 and have to get off to a good start. you get a good job with a high school diploma is pretty rare these days. you have community college strange and and some form of higher education which has that goal. the thing that troubles me in this debate is actually a teacher pay debate which is that we talk about the results come with the higher sign a possibility. there's a whole bunch of colleges i would send students to but a whole bunch of colleges i don't want anyone to go to our shouldn't go for free. they are not learning anything. those colleges are getting rich and people are unaware situation and we started. for me, thinking about community college and not just for the teens for but for the 50 year olds that are coming ba

but former tennessee governor bill haslam commuted her sentence.: my search for redemption in the american prison system." earlier this week i had a chance to talk with her. >> thank you for being with us, cyntoia. first of all, you've been a national symbol. you got people that don't agree on politics, but united around you. some of the publicity you were concerned whether it was going to be helpful or not. >> i was. we had received word from the governor's office, from his adviser that some attention was not helpful. you have to think too in a state like tennessee, something that draws a lot of attention from the public, it creates that much more scrutiny. and so i was definitely concerned that it may backfire a bit. but, you know, god worked it out. >> that's what i wanted to talk to you. obviously everybody knows what i do, but the real story that i wanted to talk about is during this time you found god. >> yes. >> and you fell in love, got married. and you really represent what reforming one's self is really all about. you prove what a lot of

you know, i've had the opportunity to speak with governor haslam since he made the decision and, yount that there are people from all over the world, people in the uk who came together to support me, to pray for me and i think that was incredible. and i think that was incredible. and i think it's important, i think it's important for other people still trapped in the system, other women going through the same thing that i went through but when it comes to my particular release and the governor's decision, he has made it very clear that he just looked at, you know, what he saw was my rehabilitation and my efforts to make use of the programmes in the prison and reallyjust better myself, and he thought i would be a good fit to be reintroduced back into society. thank you very much for telling us your story, cyntoia brown—long. thank you very much for telling us yourstory, cyntoia brown—long. she said she felt like she has been given a great opportunity to help young girls who find themselves in the situation that she was in. cyntoia brown—long. but first the headlines on bbc news. essex

former tennessee governor bill haslam told me that tennessee has the highest rate for filling out the fafsa. more students fill it out than in any other state by percentage. but it's still the single biggest impediment to more students enrolling in tennessee promise, which gives them a free community college tuition. the fafsa simplification act will make it easier for families to apply for federal student aid by doing three things. first, it reduces the number of questions on the fafsa from 108 to 17 to 30 questions. second, it will greatly reduce the need for the burdensome verification that i discussed, the process that caused janet's student to drop out of school. east tennessee state university said a third of its applicants, approximately 10,000 students, are selected each year for verification. and, third, this legislation will allow students to find out as early as eighth grade how much pell grant funding they may be eligible for so students can start to plan for college sooner. this result has been five years in the making. in 2014 at a hearing before our senate education com