In Pennsylvania, more than 400 inmates serving life without the possibility of parole for homicides committed as juveniles will get one more shot at the possibility of getting out of prison.

Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear arguments in Toca v. Louisiana, No. 14-6381. In 1984, George Toca was 17 when he accidently shot and killed a friend during an armed robbery. Toca was convicted of second-degree murder and automatically sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole, as required by Louisiana law.

In 2012, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Miller v. Alabama, 567 U.S.____ (2012), that mandatory life imprisonment without parole for juvenile murderers was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court said such mandatory life sentences for juvenile offenders violated the Eighth Amendment's ban against cruel and unusual punishment. The court did not say that life in prison for juveniles was excessive, only that mandatory life was unconstitutional. More importantly, the court did not say whether the decision was retroactive.