The Florida Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that inmates serving life sentences for crimes they committed as minors should be re-sentenced, CBS Miami reported.

The decision means that a 2014 law, which requires a judicial review before a juvenile can be imprisoned for life, will apply retroactively, the Florida Times-Union explained. Those who received such terms prior to its enactment will not be entitled to hearings.

Specifically, the state's highest tribunal threw out the 70-year sentence of a Jacksonville man who was arrested for attempted murder at age 14. Shimeeka Gridine, who is now 20, will get a new sentencing.

The court also addressed the cases of Leighdon Henry, who was 17 when he was convicted of raping, kidnapping and robbing a woman; Anthony Horsley, who in 2006 killed a convenience store owner, also at age 17; and Rebecca Falcon, who as a 15-year-old helped her boyfriend in a 1997 robbery that resulted in the death of a cab driver, Reuters detailed.

The ruling is a result of a 2010 case in which the U.S. Supreme Court had banned life sentences without a "meaningful opportunity" for release for juveniles convicted of crimes other than homicide, the Miami CBS affiliate recalled. Two years later, the nation's highest tribunal also forbade mandatory life sentences for juveniles convicted of murder.

In its ruling, the Florida Supreme Court concluded that the two cases – known as Graham vs. Florida and Miller vs. Alabama – constitute "a development of fundamental significance," the standard for retroactivity.

"The patent unfairness of depriving indistinguishable juvenile offenders of their liberty for the rest of their lives, based solely on when their cases were decided, weighs heavily in favor of applying the (U.S.) Supreme Court's decision in Miller retroactively," Florida Justice Barbara Pariente wrote in an opinion ordering a lower court to consider a new sentence for Falcon.

Rob Mason, the head of the Jacksonville area's public defender's juvenile division, meanwhile, told the Florida Times-Union that hundreds of individuals will need to be re-sentenced.

"We have a lot of work to do," he said.