#FREECYNTOIABROWN goes viral following Rihanna's Instagram post

Scores of advocates including pop stars such as Rihanna have taken to social media encouraging the freedom of teenage victim of sex trafficking victim sentenced to life in prison for killing a 43-year-old stranger who had picked her up at a Nashville Sonic.

"Did we somehow change the definition of #JUSTICE along the way??" the superstar  Rihanna wrote on her Instagram page Tuesday morning. "Cause..... Something is horribly wrong when the system enables these rapists and the victim is thrown away for life! To each of you responsible for this child's sentence I hope to God you don't have children, because this could be your daughter being punished for punishing already!"

Less than two hours after the post, Rihanna’s comments had garnered nearly 700,000 likes.

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She ended the post with #FREECYNTOIABROWN – a hashtag that went viral on Twitter and refers to the Nashville woman now serving a life sentence in Tennessee Prison for Women.

Kim Kardashian West was among those who tweeted the hashtag. Ebony and Essence magazines on Tuesday posted their own stories about Brown.

At 16, Cyntoia Brown climbed into a pickup truck on Murfreesboro Pike with a stranger, drove to his home, got into his bed — then shot him in the back of the head with a .40-caliber handgun as he lay naked beside her.

Following Brown's murder trial was in 2006, she was convicted of murdering Nashville real estate agent Johnny Mitchell Allen.

She will be eligible for parole sometime after her 69th birthday.

A petition has also been started on Brown's behalf. 

Although the U.S. Supreme Court In 2010 court ruled that mandatory life without parole sentences for juveniles violate Eighth Amendment prohibitions against cruel and unusual punishment, that decision does not apply to Brown.

Me Facing Life: Cyntoia's Story | A Woman in Prison | Independent Lens | PBS

The decision applies only to life sentences where there is no possibility of parole or automatic review of a sentence after a period of time. In Tennessee there is an automatic review after 51 years, a period advocates consider a virtual life sentence.

Advocates in Tennessee failed last year to get a bill approved that would have required a review of a life sentence by the original sentencing court after 15 years.

In Tennessee, at least 183 people are serving life sentences for crimes committed when they were teens. 

Brown has never denied her crime. She has said that she was forced into prostitution by a violent boyfriend. She believed the man who picked her up was reaching for his gun when she killed him.

She continues to serve a life sentence, meaning she will be eligible for parole after serving 51 years under TN law.

“We are still working collaboratively to try and work towards changing the laws for juveniles sentenced to life and life without true parole,” said Kathy Sinback, administrator of Davidson County Juvenile Court and Brown's original public defender.

Since her time behind bars, Brown has been called a model prisoner, mentors other female prisoners and received her associate degree from a Lipscomb University in-jail program in December.

Anita Wadhwania contributed to this report. Reach Natalie Neysa Alund at nalund@tennessean.com and follow her on Twitter @nataliealund.