People v. Buffer

This case presents question as to whether defendant was entitled to new sentencing hearing, where defendant was sentencing to 50-year term of incarceration on 1^st degree murder conviction, and where defendant had committed said offense when he was 16 years old. While trial court dismissed defendant’s petition for post-conviction relief that challenged his sentencing on 8^th Amendment grounds, Appellate Court, in reversing trial court and remanding matter for new sentencing hearing, essentially agreed with defendant that his sentence violated 8^th Amendment because it effectively was de facto mandatory life sentence that was prohibited under Reyes, 407 Ill.Dec. 452. Appellate Court further noted that while trial court exercised discretion when imposing original sentence, it failed to take into account how children are different than adults, and how those differences counsel against irrevocably sentencing them to lifetime in prison. In its petition for leave to appeal, govt. argued that defendant’s release at 66 years of age would not indisputably translate into life without parole sentence.