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FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. \u2014 (AP) \u2014 Shortly after Riley Briones Jr. arrived in federal prison, he cut his long, braided hair in a symbolic death of his old self.<\/p>\n
As the 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.<\/p>\n
In prison, he has been baptized a Christian, ministers to other inmates who call him Brother Briones, got his GED and has a spotless disciplinary record, his attorneys say in their latest bid to get the now 45-year-old’s sentence cut short.<\/p>\n
“He\u2019s clearly on the side of the line where he should be walking free,\u201d said his attorney, Easha Anand.<\/p>\n
The U.S. Supreme Court opened the door for that possibility with a 2012 ruling that said only the rare, irredeemable juvenile offender should serve life in prison. Over the past decade, most of the 39 defendants in federal cases who received that sentence have gotten a reprieve and are serving far fewer years behind bars.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, more than 60 legal experts and scholars have asked the federal government to cap sentences for juvenile offenders at 30 years, create a committee to review life sentences in the future and reconsider its stance in Briones\u2019 case.<\/p>\n
But the move toward greater leniency has been gradual and not without resistance.<\/p>\n
Briones is among those whose life sentences have been upheld in recent years, though he still has another chance.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors in his case have staunchly opposed a reduced term. They argue despite Briones’ improvements, he minimized his role in the gang and its crimes that terrorized Salt River amid an explosion of gang violence on Native American reservations in the 1990s.<\/p>\n
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Briones began serving prison time in 1997 for the death of Brian Patrick Lindsay, a Northern Arizona University honors student who was home for the summer and had picked up a solo shift at a Subway sandwich shop.<\/p>\n
Briones drove four others from the notorious \u201cEastside Crips Rolling 30s\u201d gang to the restaurant on May 15, 1994, one of whom was armed with a 9 mm pistol. Lindsay was preparing food they ordered when one of the gang members went outside to talk to Briones, came back inside and suddenly shot Lindsay in the face. He pumped more bullets into Lindsay as he lay bleeding on the floor.<\/p>\n
They had planned the robbery to get cash for guns, prosecutors wrote in court documents. They weren’t able to open the cash register but took a bank bag with $100 and the food the dying clerk had prepared.<\/p>\n
Briones instructed another gang member to kill a maintenance man whom they saw earlier clearing the sidewalk, but they couldn’t find him, court documents state.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors said the murder was the most egregious of the violent crimes that Briones helped plot and carry out on the reservation about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Phoenix. But there were others that demonstrated a \u201cmurderous, unrepentant and unapologetic attitude,\u201d prosecutors said.<\/p>\n
The gang members set diversionary fires while they firebombed a rival’s house and did drive-by shootings. They stole cars and firearms to carry out the crimes. They also hatched plans to kill a tribal judge, federal prosecutors and tribal police investigators but didn’t follow through, according to court documents.<\/p>\n
Briones was arrested at his home in 1995. Along with murder, he was convicted of arson, tampering with a witness and assault with a dangerous weapon. Three of his co-defendants were sentenced to life. One cooperated with prosecutors and received a lesser term.<\/p>\n
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Bennit Hayes can’t imagine that version of Briones, whom he served time with at the federal prison in Beaumont, Texas. Hayes said he learned about Sunday chapel services and a Bible study group that gathered on the prison yard, and Briones welcomed him with a big smile and a hug.<\/p>\n
Hayes said he respected Briones because he never talked over others, he studied intently, and he worked hard and encouraged others to lead better lives. Briones prayed for anyone who asked, Hayes said.<\/p>\n
\u201cGod blessed me not only to have the camaraderie and the brotherhood but to see genuine change,\u201d said Hayes, whose sentence was commuted by President Barack Obama in 2016. \u201cHe was the light in the candle that I put up against everything else going forward.\u201d<\/p>\n
By then, Briones had cut his hair that fell past his waist, abstained from food for 40 days and surrendered to God, said his wife, Carmen Briones.<\/p>\n
\u201cRiley made that decision,\u201d said Carmen Briones, who is enrolled Pascua Yaqui. \u201cHe said, \u2018I have to have a different life. I can\u2019t have the same life I had before.\u2019”<\/p>\n
The couple met while they were teenagers attending a youth camp at Arizona State University. They had a daughter who is now 30 and got married in 1999 while Briones, who is San Carlos Apache and Salt River Pima-Maricopa, was in prison.<\/p>\n
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Briones’ case became eligible for resentencing after the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama. It was part of a series of cases in which the court found minors should be treated differently from adults, partly because of a lack of maturity. The court previously eliminated the death penalty for juveniles and barred life-without-parole sentences for juveniles except in cases of murder.<\/p>\n
A handful of the defendants in the 39 federal cases \u2014 most of whom are minorities \u2014 have been released from prison.<\/p>\n
The Feb. 17 letter seeking reform from the Justice Department pointed to statistics that show the median sentence for adults convicted of murder in the federal system is 20 years \u2014 nearly half the median for the juvenile offenders.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking a life is really, really serious, and I don\u2019t belittle that at all,\u201d said Mary McCord, executive director of the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection at the Georgetown University Law Center, one of the signatories. \u201cBut a full life in prison when you\u2019re a juvenile and you\u2019re talking about 40, 50, 60 years in prison is exceedingly excessive probably in almost every case and not consistent with typical sentences for homicides, even adults.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment from The Associated Press.<\/p>\n
A decision in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019 gave Briones an opportunity to plead again before a district court judge to lower his sentence. But before he got the chance, the U.S. Department of Justice asked the U.S. Supreme Court to hold the case until it decided another one, Jones v. Mississippi, meant to clarify rulings in two other cases regarding juvenile offenders.<\/p>\n
From there, Briones’ case went back to the 9th Circuit.<\/p>\n
A three-judge panel ruled against Briones, and now his attorneys are asking the full court to reconsider. The federal government’s response is due in May.<\/p>\n
The California-based Criminal Justice Legal Foundation, a victims rights group, said changes in the law that continually allow juvenile offenders to get another shot at freedom are damaging for the families, communities and the criminal justice system.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of these crimes are just very horrible, and the impacts on the families are substantial, and they never go away,\u201d said the group’s president, Michael Rushford.<\/p>\n
The Campaign for the Fair Sentencing of Youth has long argued the changes a person makes once they’ve entered prison should matter, and juveniles offenders should be able to live as adults outside prison walls.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf the facts of the crime are always going to be the overpowering force, then Miller isn’t going to be meaningfully interpreted to outweigh all this positive growth,\u201d said Rebecca Turner, who tracks the federal cases for the group.<\/p>\n
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The federal court in Arizona has resentenced more of the juvenile offenders to life in prison than any other state. Texas has two juvenile offenders who are serving life but weren’t able to be resentenced because of how courts interpreted Miller v. Alabama. South Carolina resentenced one inmate to life.<\/p>\n
All three federal cases in Arizona were from Native American reservations, where the federal government has jurisdiction when the suspect, victim or both are Native American for a set of major crimes, including homicide. The penalties, in general, are stricter than if the crimes happened off the reservation and the cases ended up in state court.<\/p>\n
Branden Pete, who is Navajo, got a mandatory life sentence for raping and then killing a woman by throwing rocks at her head on the Navajo Nation in 2002. A judge considered his dysfunctional upbringing, substance abuse issues, prison disciplinary record and the brutality of the crime in resentencing him to 54 years in prison in 2017.<\/p>\n
It’s the third-longest resentence among defendants, not including those whose life sentences were reaffirmed or didn’t get a chance to plead for less time. The resentences range from 15 years to 70 years.<\/p>\n