May 04--The first inmate in Cook County to be resentenced because of a sweeping U.S. Supreme Court decision was given a life sentence again on Monday.
Adolfo Davis wiped tears from his face and laid his head on the defense table on learning his fate from Judge Angela Petrone at the Leighton Criminal Court Building.
His lawyers had hoped the judge would set him free. He has a right to appeal Petrone's decision.
Davis was a juvenile when he was given a mandatory life sentence 24 years ago for a gang-related double murder at a South Side apartment.
But in 2012 the U.S. Supreme Court, citing scientific studies, found that such strict and inflexible mandatory sentencing rules violate the constitutional rights of juveniles who are not always mature enough to understand the consequences of their actions or to not be swayed by peer pressure.
But in deciding Monday that Davis needed to be imprisoned for life, Petrone said he had been an active participant at the age of 14 in the double murder, saying the evidence showed he provided guns and fired one himself.
The judge was also not swayed by numerous witnesses who spoke of Davis' rehabilitation in prison, calling them well-intentioned but uninformed.
She pointed to several threats Davis was said to have made toward correctional officers and other prison officials and the dozens of prison violations he incurred over the years.
She acknowledged his troubled background but said he had ample opportunity for help growing up.
Following the decision, Davis' cousin, Carolyn Bunch, teared up in a courthouse hallway, saying Petrone couldn't understand how broken Davis' home life was as a child.
"She didn't have any compassion," Bunch said.
Davis' case is the first to be considered among the defendants convicted in Cook County as juveniles and given mandatory life sentences. Some 80 defendants overall in Illinois were affected by the ruling.
The high-stakes nature of Davis' case was evident last month at a contentious 11-hour hearing at which his attorneys sought a sentence of time served, while prosecutors argued he still deserved a life sentence.
Davis' attorneys contended he did not fire a gun that night, while prosecutors said evidence collected at the scene proved he did.
The judge also heard testimony about Davis' troubling background that included his being raised by an illiterate grandmother who struggled to provide his most basic needs. State social workers found the home uninhabitable.
Petrone also heard from prison counselors and advisers who testified that Davis has expressed remorse and made substantial changes in his life, including renouncing his gang membership and earning an education.
"I think the entire community of attorneys and families and defendants are watching this hearing very closely because it is the first, and they do believe it will have some precedential value," said Davis attorney Rachel Steinback.
Prosecutors, however, cast Davis as directly involved in planning the attack. At the hearing last month, Assistant State's Attorney James McKay called Davis a former teenage "executioner" who blasted into the apartment with fellow Gangster Disciples in a robbery they carried out to avenge a petty slight by rivals.
"They might have been young, but they were violent," McKay said last month. "At the age of 14, he was more sophisticated on the streets than most adults."
As Davis' case and the others play out, another group likely to be closely following events are the surviving families of other victims of juvenile offenders, said Jennifer Bishop-Jenkins, whose sister was fatally shot in 1990 by a 16-year-old.
Bishop-Jenkins, a victims rights advocate, said the reopening of sentencing issues so many years later is extraordinarily painful.
"Lots and lots of us have been re-traumatized," she said.
asweeney@tribpub.com
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