MINNEAPOLIS (AP) - The U.S. Supreme Court has declined to hear the appeal of a Minnesota man convicted of raping and killing a teenage girl when he was 17.

That means Tony Roman Nose will continue to serve his sentence of life in prison, without the possibility of release.

Roman Nose was convicted in the July 2000 killing of Jolene Stuedemann of Woodbury. He received the mandatory sentence of life without parole.

His sentence became an issue after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that mandatory no-parole sentences for juveniles are unconstitutional. But the Minnesota Supreme Court has found this federal ruling doesn't apply to old cases.

Roman Nose is now 32. He'll remain imprisoned for life unless the Legislature or the U.S. Supreme Court take up the issue of retroactivity someday.

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