About 100 convicted Illinois murderers, sentenced as teenagers to life without parole, are assured of re-sentencing after a U.S. Supreme Court ruling Monday, January 25, 2016.
The high court found its 2012 opinion barring automatic life terms for young offenders is retroactive. The Illinois Supreme Court decreed the same two years ago.
Heidi Lambros is with the Office of the State Appellate Defender. She says two Illinois cases have already undergone re-sentencing. One involved Addolfo Davis, the subject of the 2014 Illinois case. He was re-sentenced to life in prison. Lambros says the other was released after serving 30 years.
The U.S. ruling — involving a 17-year-old Louisiana man who shot a sheriff’s deputy in 1963 — solidifies the Illinois position.
Lambros says the other Illinois cases will be scheduled for court hearings.
The ruling is not expected to have much impact in Iowa since the state’s Supreme Court already extended the federal court ruling. The Iowa Attorney General’s office says the ruling affected 39 Iowa juvenile life offenders and most of them have already been re-sentenced.