The Supreme Court has ruled that judges must exercise a heightened level of care before sentencing juveniles to sentences that are the practical equivalent of life imprisonment.

Ruling in State v. Zuber, the court said sentencing judges must follow the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2012 directive in Miller v. Alabama, which held that the Eighth Amendment forbids a sentencing scheme that mandates life in prison without the possibility of parole for juvenile offenders.