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In 2012, the Supreme Court held that in all but rare cases, the imposition of “life without parole” sentences for juveniles violated the Eighth Amendment’s prohibition against cruel and unusual punishments. So when the U.S. Supreme Court decided last year in Jones v. Mississippi to uphold a “life without parole” sentence that was imposed on a 15-year old without factual findings, the decision created a legal vacuum for states to determine how to define those unusual cases in which juvenile life sentences were constitutional. This course will examine how Illinois courts have responded in the wake of Jones. <br /><br />This presentation from the University of Illinois College of Law will feature Professor Margareth Etienne. Professor Etienne is the Carl L. Vacketta Professor of Law at the University of Illinois. She received her bachelor’s degree in history from Yale University, and earned her law degree from Yale Law School. Following law school, Etienne clerked for Judge Diana G. Motz on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit. She later practiced criminal law as a Federal Public Defender where she argued cases in the Northern District of Georgia and before the Eleventh Circuit. Professor Etienne joined the College of Law in 2001, where she is a scholar and teacher in the areas of criminal law and procedure, sentencing, education law and children in the law.