A ruling by an Alaska appeals court on Friday in a case involving sentencing for minors could change the fate of people sentenced to life in prison as juveniles.

The verdict stems from a case involving Winona Fletcher. She was just 14 years old when she and her boyfriend broke into a house in Anchorage in 1985 and killed three people. Anchorage Daily News reported. Fletcher, the youngest woman ever convicted of murder in Alaska, received a 135-year prison sentence – a sentence the court said must now be reconsidered under the state constitution.

Last year, the Alaska Court of Appeals ruled that the state constitution requires judges to weigh factors such as the defendant’s age and developmental circumstances before imposing a sentence equivalent to life in prison without parole.

Last Friday, the court confirmed that the ruling would be applied retroactively, meaning that the convictions of Fletcher and others in similar situations could potentially be reconsidered, the Associated Press reported.

“Making Fletcher retroactive would promote an important constitutional principle — namely, ensuring that juveniles tried as adults in Alaska courts are not subject to cruel and unusual punishment and that only juveniles found to be ‘irretrievably corrupt’ are sentenced to a de facto term of life without parole,” the ruling states.

However, Marcy McDannel, Fletcher’s attorney, warned that this ruling would not lead to widespread re-sentencing in the state.

“This is not going to open the floodgates,” McDannel told AP, adding that the ruling does not necessarily mean a reduction in prison sentences, as some of them could have their original sentences upheld by lower courts. “This is only applicable in very extreme cases.”

Fletcher could face a new sentencing as early as December, but an ongoing court case could delay the trial.

Newsweek has emailed the Alaska Court of Appeals for comment.

Also among those who could benefit from the ruling is Brian Hall, who as a juvenile received an even longer sentence than Fletcher’s 135 years. Hall, who has now served 31 years of a 156-year sentence, could be one of the few to seek re-sentencing under the new legal criteria. His wife, Angela Hall, who runs a support group for families of inmates, expressed hope for a better future. “When we read the verdict, we burst into tears,” she said. “This is what we’ve been waiting for.”

The ruling comes at a time when the share of juveniles in the total U.S. prison population has fallen from 0.9 percent in 2002 to 0.3 percent in 2021, and the number of juveniles incarcerated in all U.S. adult prisons has declined between 2008 and 2022, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report to be released in 2023.

According to the report, in 2021, 87 percent of juveniles in adult correctional facilities were held in local jails and 13 percent in detention centers, compared to 66 percent in local jails and 34 percent in detention centers in 2002.