Juvenile Life Sentences After Miller

After the U.S. Supreme Court ordered that Miller be applied retroactively regarding de facto life sentences for juveniles, the Illinois Supreme Court in People v. Buffer created a bright-line rule: Any sentence of incarceration greater than 40 years is a de facto life sentence and must comply with Miller and its progeny. This caused a stir in Illinois trial courts, as myriad postconviction petitions were filed by juvenile offenders who were serving terms longer than 40 years and seeking a resentencing under the new rules stemming from Miller. In Joseph T. Moran’s March 2021 Illinois Bar Journal article, “Juvenile Life Sentences After Miller,” Moran notes that practitioners can draw from a substantial amount of caselaw to effectively identify when resentencings are required to address a juvenile offender’s youth and attendant circumstances during a sentencing or Miller resentencing hearing.

Read more in the March issue of the Illinois Bar Journal.