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Illinois: post-conviction forms and deadlines.
These are the four forms a woman convicted in Illinois can use to ask a court to look at her conviction or sentence again, with the deadline we found for each. Download them, or ask us to mail them to her in prison, free. Not sure which applies? Find her step first.
Post-conviction petition (Post-Conviction Hearing Act)
This state has no official statewide form. She can still file. The petition can be typed or neatly handwritten, as long as it includes what the state’s rule requires. How to write it without a form → First, ask the court clerk whether the court that convicted her has its own form.
Most states allow only one post-conviction petition, so a claim left out may be lost. The federal one-year clock keeps running until this petition is filed. Ask the court in writing to appoint a lawyer, and write to an innocence organization before she files.
Petition for writ of habeas corpus
Some federal courts use their own version of this form. Check the court’s website before filing.
Sentence review by a panel of judges
We did not find a separate sentence review panel in Illinois. Confirm with the court clerk.
Motion to reduce (reconsider) sentence
The petition must be verified by affidavit, must say it is filed under Section 122-1, and should attach affidavits, records or other evidence or explain why they are missing. Serve a copy on the State's Attorney. Ask for a lawyer in the petition itself: if the petition survives the court's first review, the court appoints counsel only if she asked. Survivors of domestic or gender-based violence: 735 ILCS 5/2-1401(b-5) lets a woman convicted of a forcible felony ask to be resentenced when evidence of the abuse was not presented at sentencing. The usual 2-year limit does not apply to that petition.
All Illinois court forms: state court forms page →
We will mail them to her.
Write to us and we will print the Illinois forms and mail them to her at no cost.
Ask us to mail them →Or email help@womensinnocenceclinic.com. Print our guide for her. Each facility sets its own mail rules. If her facility returns our mail, we will let you know.
Send us:
- Her full legal name
- Her ID or DOC number
- Her facility’s name and full mailing address
- The state, county and case number
- Her sentencing date, and her appeal and filing dates
- Which forms she needs
- Your name, your relationship to her, and how to reach you
Last checked Sept. 24, 2026 against the rule or statute cited above. Forms, rules and deadlines change, and exceptions apply. Deadlines are copied from each state’s rule, in the rule’s own words. Confirm every deadline with the court clerk or a lawyer before filing. This is information, not legal advice.