OTTAWA, Ill. — One of Adrianne Reynolds's killers is asking for a reduction on her 53-year prison sentence, according to court records.
Sarah Kolb, one of the killers convicted in the 2005 murder of 16-year-old Adrianne Reynolds, and her legal team asked the Illinois Third District Appellate Court to reduce her sentence in a hearing on Wednesday, Jan. 11.
The case is similar to a previous request for clemency in Kolb's case that was initiated in 2022, but was halted due to "unforeseen circumstances" and a previously failed sentence reduction request — she alleges that the judge in the original murder case did not take several factors into account when deciding her sentence, including age, competence and family background.
Her legal team also argues that the sentence is a cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment — due to her age of 16 years at the time of the murder, her case conflicts with a 2019 Illinois Supreme Court decision that ruled that any sentence over 40 years for a juvenile is considered a life sentence.
"Simply the proportion of penalties is a very flexible standard and it evolves with human understanding scientific understanding," Kolb's lawyer, Robert Markfield, argued. "And traditionally, I mean, it's not pinned down but proportionate penalties has been used to give criminal defendants, especially children, you know, more expansive rights. So, it's unresolved, and I feel that it's important to talk about proportionate penalties."
The Third District Appellate Court will be considering if the law was applied correctly in her original trial.
Kolb is being held at the Logan Correctional Center in Lincoln, Illinois.
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