The State is wrestling with how to re-sentence hundreds of Michigan defendants who were ordered as teens to serve mandatory life in prison without parole. In 2012, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled that sentencing a person under 18 to life in prison without parole constituted cruel and unusual punishment, and local counties are now faced with the financial hardship and emotional turmoil of having to re-sentence the offenders. Supporters of the re-sentencing point to numerous scientific studies showing the inability of teen brains to consider the long-term consequences of their actions.