NEW ORLEANS — The Louisiana Supreme Court said Friday that state prosecutors will be allowed to argue that a man who was a week shy of his 18th birthday when he killed an LSU student should not be eligible for parole despite his age at the time of the crime.

In a 6-1 ruling, the justices said the 1st Circuit Court of Appeal erred when it said the state couldn't challenge a decision to give Dale Dwayne Craig a life term but allow for parole. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled against lower courts imposing excessive punishments on young offenders.

Craig was convicted of killing Kipp Gullett, an LSU freshman who died Sept. 14, 1992. The state says Craig stole Gullett's Ford Bronco, took him to a secluded construction site and shot him three times in the head. A jury imposed a death sentence but he was subsequently given a life term without the right to parole.

After serving 28 years, Judge Eboni Johnson Rose Craig made him parole-eligible, citing his age at the time of the crime. Louisiana argued he was close enough to age 18 to qualify a harsher penalty. Attorney General Liz Murrill said last month that Craig should have remained eligible for execution despite his age at the time of the crime.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 2005 ruled that defendants who committed their crimes prior to turning 18 cannot be executed, commuting Craig's sentence to life in prison. In its ruling, the court said that executing people who committed crimes as minors was cruel and unusual punishment barred by the Constitution.