New Law in Illinois will eliminate life without parole sentences for young offenders, and proposed legislation would make the move retroactive.
Nelson Morris, a development manager at Restore Justice, a criminal justice reform group, was arrested in 1991 when he was 17 for a double murder and was released from prison in 2020. Restore Justice advocated for legislation to abolish natural life in prison without a chance at parole for minors and most young adults from 18 through 20.
Under the measure, which goes into effect in January, anyone receiving a life sentence — except for people 18 through 20 found guilty of predatory criminal sexual assault of a child — will be eligible for parole review by the state’s Prisoner Review Board after being locked up for 40 years. “No judge, I don’t care how good the judge is, can look at a 17-year-old and tell me who they’re going to be when they’re 50,” said Jobi Cates, executive director of Restore Justice, which lobbied for the new law. “Nobody has that crystal ball and there are too many things that go into these types of decisions to convict a kid at that age that are unknowable.”
But she argued there’s already a path for prisoners serving lengthy sentences to appeal through the commutation process. She also expressed concern that the legislation will lead to further loosening of sentencing laws. State Sen. John Curran, left, talks with State Sen. Terri Bryant while she debates with members of the Senate shortly before the Senate passed changes to the controversial criminal justice law known as the SAFE-T Act on Dec. 1, 2022, in Springfield.
Just months into his first term in office in 2019, Pritzker signed a bill into law that allows anyone under 21 sentenced to lengthy prison terms for most crimes that don’t carry life sentences to be eligible for a parole review after serving 10 years. Morris was 17 when he was arrested for the 1991 killings, and not much older when he entered the state prison system.
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