Illinois Supreme Court
Criminal Court
Sentencing
A consolidated case where defendants, who were both sentenced to life in prison for separate murders committed when they were 19 years old, appealed from judgments denying them leave to file successive post-conviction petitions challenging their sentences. The Supreme Court found that neither defendant sufficiently pled cause for filing a successive post-conviction petition, explaining that Miller did not change the law applicable to discretionary sentences imposed on young adult offenders and, as a result, did not provide cause for the filing of successive post-conviction petitioners. (THEIS, OVERSTREET, HOLDER WHITE, CUNNINGHAM, ROCHFORD, and O’BRIEN, concurring)