SAN FRANCISCO – The Latest on the California Supreme Court’s ruling on the constitutionality of a mandatory 50-years-to-life sentence for a juvenile convicted of homicide (all times local):

11:10 a.m.

The California Supreme Court has rejected a constitutional challenge to a criminal sentence of 50 years to life for a juvenile convicted of murder.

The court in its ruling Thursday cited a state law that gives juvenile offenders the right to a parole hearing within 25 years. Associate Justice Goodwin Liu, writing for the majority, said the law makes the claim that the 50-year-to-life sentence is unconstitutional moot. That’s in part because it provides the defendant with the possibility of release after serving 25 years.

Attorneys for the defendant, Tyris Franklin, had argued that a mandatory 50-year-to-life sentence was the equivalent of life without parole and banned by a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling.

A call to an attorney for Franklin was not immediately returned.

2 a.m.

The California Supreme Court is set to decide whether a mandatory criminal sentence of 50 years to life for a juvenile convicted of a killing violated the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment.

At issue in the ruling expected on Thursday is a state law that gives juvenile offenders the right to a parole hearing within 25 years. The state attorney general’s office says a sentence of 50-year-to-life for a juvenile convicted of murder is not a de facto life term that violates the Constitution.

Attorneys for a man convicted of murder at 16 and sentenced to 50 years to life disagree, saying the sentence was equivalent to a life term and the parole hearing law did not make it moot.