We need your help creating a pathway to release for people sentenced as children.

In Illinois, judges must consider a person’s youth during sentencing. Yet, many people are serving life without parole sentences for youthful convictions because they were sentenced before changes in the law.

In the 2012 ruling Miller v. Alabama, the U.S. Supreme Court announced a substantive constitutional change requiring judges to consider age, brain development, and environmental circumstances when sentencing people under 18. In 2014, Illinois passed bipartisan Public Act 99-0069, codifying Miller and expanding judicial discretion when sentencing people under 18.

Additionally, the Illinois Supreme Court later recognized that those youthful factors identified in Miller could apply to people under 21 and that such claims are best raised in post-conviction petitions.

However, the law generally allows one post-conviction petition. It’s nearly impossible to file another petition. To file more than one post-conviction petition, a person must first obtain the court’s permission (i.e., “leave”). Leave of the court may be granted only if a petitioner demonstrates both cause, or the reason, for their failure to raise the claim in their initial post-conviction proceedings and prejudice, or a violation of due process.

As a result, people who filed their first petition before Miller are left unable to have their sentences reviewed under modern sentencing standards simply due to the timing of their first petition.

SB 248 would create a narrow exception to the Post-Conviction Hearing Act. The bill would eliminate the “cause” requirement for people sentenced as youth who want to file a new petition citing their youth.