People v. Othman

This case presents question as to whether trial court properly sentenced 17-year-old defendant to 55-year term of incarceration on murder charge. Appellate Court, after reversing defendant’s murder conviction, found that Truth-in-Lending Act, which requires certain individuals to serve 100 percent of their sentences, was unconstitutional as applied to defendant and other juveniles, since State must provide meaningful opportunity for juvenile defendants tried as adults to demonstrate their rehabilitation. Appellate Ct. further found that instant sentence was unconstitutional under 8^th Amendment and Illinois’s penalties provision, and that new juvenile sentencing provision (725 ILCS 5/5-4.5-105(b)) making firearm enhancement applied in instant case discretionary rather than mandatory for juvenile offenders applied retroactively to this case. In its petition for leave to appeal, State argued that Appellate Ct. should not have made any ruling on defendant’s sentence where it had reversed his murder conviction. It also contended that Appellate Court’s ruling on retroactivity of section 5-4.5-105(b) was contrary to Hunter, 2017 IL 121306, and that Appellate Court's holding on Illinois’s penalties provision conflicted with Hill, 241 Ill.2d 479 (Partial dissent filed.)