Cyntoia Brown was 16 and a victim of sex trafficking when she was arrested for killing the man who allegedly solicited her for sex, Johnny Allen. In her defense, she says she believed he was reaching for his gun to kill her. However, Tennessee’s Supreme Court clarified an earlier ruling that she must remain in prison for 51 years before she is eligible for release.

The state Supreme Court’s response comes after a lawsuit was filed claiming Brown’s life sentence is unconstitutional based on a previous Supreme Court ruling that said sentencing a minor to a mandatory life sentence was against the Constitution. Only 20 states and the District of Columbia have banned life without parole for minors. Tennessee is not one of those states; there, people convicted of first-degree murder can only be released from prison after serving at least 51 years of their 60-year sentence. A U.S. District Court in Tennessee noted that her sentence was different because she received a “life sentence, not a sentence of life without the possibility of parole.”