Defendant, age 16 at time of shootings, was prosecuted as an adult, with indictment alleging that Defendant personally discharged a firearm in direction of vehicle occupied by 3 persons, and that his actions caused death of 1 person and serious injury to another person in vehicle. Court imposed mandatory minimum sentence of 45 years for 1st degree murder conviction; and 26 years for each of 2 attempted murder convictions, all to run consecutively for total 97 years. Defendant would be required to serve 89 years before eligible for release. Rationale of U.S. Supreme Court's 2012 decision in Miller v. Alabama applies to a mandatory term of years that "indisputably amounts" to life imprisonment without possibility of parole for a single offense or for offenses committed in a single course of conduct. Defendant's term-of-years sentence is a mandatory, de facto life-without-parole sentence, and is thus vacated as unconstitutional under Miller v. Alabama. Defendant is entitled, on remand, to be resentenced under sentencing scheme in Section 5-4.5-105, so that mandatory minimum agregate sentence is 32 years. (PER CURIAM.)
Illinois Supreme Court
Criminal Court
Juvenile Sentencing