Juvenile lifers: Middle-aged woman with long dark, graying hair wearing black top stands holding collaged photo of her younger self with a young, dark-haired mn hugging her from the back

Juvenile lifer seeks reprieve amid broader push for leniency

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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) — Shortly after Riley Briones Jr. arrived in federal prison, he cut his long, braided hair in a symbolic death of his old self.

As a leader of a violent gang and just shy of 18, Briones drove the getaway car in a robbery turned deadly on the Salt River-Pima Maricopa Indian Community outside Phoenix in 1994. He was convicted of murder and given a mandatory sentence of life without parole.