Supreme Court Upholds Teenage Murder’s Sentence

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Minnesota Supreme Court has upheld three consecutive life sentences with the possibility of release for a man who killed three people in a Minneapolis market in 2010.

Because they are consecutive, Mahdi Hassan Ali won't be eligible for release until he serves 90 years.

Prosecutors say Ali was 16 when he killed three men at Seward Market and Halal Meat. He was originally sentenced to mandatory life without parole for one death, and consecutive life sentences for the other two.

That mandatory life without parole sentence was vacated in 2014 after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled such sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional.

He was then given three consecutive life terms. His attorneys appealed, saying it amounted to life in prison.

But the Supreme Court says the consecutive sentences don't unfairly exaggerate the criminality of Ali's conduct.