The Nebraska Supreme Court will hear arguments in the appeal of an Omaha man given life in prison for the gang-related shooting death of a 20-year-old man.

Trevelle Taylor was 17 when prosecutors say he shot Justin Ganines to death in 2009. He was sentenced after turning 18 in 2010 to life in prison. While the words “life without parole” do not appear in his sentence, the sentencing judge set no discharge date for Taylor “until the Pardons Board of the State of Nebraska commutes the sentence or offers a specific term of years.”

The now 21-year-old Taylor’s attorney says that amounts to a life sentence without parole and cited a U.S. Supreme Court ruling last year declaring mandatory life-without-parole sentences for juvenile killers unconstitutional.