The Iowa teen who was ordered to pay her rapist’s family $150K for his death as part of her sentencing is now asking for the order to be overturned.
We reported that earlier this month, Pieper Lewis was sentenced to five years probation and ordered to pay restitution to her rapist’s, Zachary Brooks, estate after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and willful injury.
Lewis stabbed Brooks more than 30 times after she was trafficked by him when she ran away. She stated that she was raped multiple times by Brooks and killed him after she was raped one last time by him.
According to reports, Lewis’ claims were not disputed by law enforcement or prosecutors and argued that she was not in immediate danger during the time of the killing because he was asleep. Once Lewis’ verdict was revealed, a GoFUndMe account was created for her by her former high school math teacher which reached over $500K from over 14,000 donations. However, Lewis’ legal team is now taking action to have the verdict overturned arguing that, “Voluntary manslaughter requires an element of ‘serious provocation.’
Her legal team also wrote,“The ‘serious provocation’ at issue here was the rape Pieper endured immediately before the stabbing, a rape perpetrated by Zachary Brooks.” Her lawyers also argued that the judge based the ruling on the 2017 Iowa Supreme Court case where another teenage girl stabbed her 19-year-old boyfriend to death when he was robbing another man. She would end up pleading guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Lewis’ lawyers are also arguing that the two cases are not similar because their client acted out of self-defense and stated that the murder was not premeditated.