Florida is one of 13 states that give prosecutors unfettered power to try children as adults without getting sign-off from a judge. And when judges determine the penalties for those kids, they give them higher sentences on average for felony crimes than older, adult offenders, according to a Miami Herald investigation.

In May 2018, the judge in Knight’s criminal case ruled that he should be resentenced. But prosecutors asked to put the resentencing on pause roughly six months later, pointing out that other Florida appeals courts had ruled that decades-long sentences were not necessarily equivalent to life and that the Florida Supreme Court was reviewing the cases to resolve the conflict.

The court agreed to the pause. Knight was stuck in limbo for five years. In that time, the state Supreme Court concluded that long sentences such as Knight’s didn’t automatically violate the U.S. Supreme Court ruling.