UPDATE 1-Illinois attorney general challenges sentence of ex-Chicago officer

Illinois Attorney General Kwame Raoul on Monday challenged the sentence of convicted former Chicago police officer Jason Van Dyke, questioning whether the judge who imposed it followed the law.

Van Dyke, 40, was sentenced last month to nearly seven years in prison for second-degree murder in the shooting death of black teen Laquan McDonald in 2014 in a landmark case that highlighted racial tensions in America's third-largest city. Activists and prosecutors had wanted a longer sentence. Van Dyke could have received up to 20 years in prison for second-degree murder and up to 30 years for each of 16 counts of aggravated battery - one count for each shot he fired at 17-year-old McDonald, who was carrying a knife.

Cook County Circuit Court Judge Vincent Gaughan did not sentence Van Dyke for the aggravated battery conviction. Raoul and Kane County State’s Attorney Joe McMahon, the special prosecutor in the case, said at a news conference that they had a filed a petition to the Illinois Supreme Court to review the sentence imposed by Gaughan. Van Dyke could appeal the petition, they said.

“This is a question of the law. And it is in the interest of justice that the law be followed no matter who the defendant and no matter who the victim is in a particular case,” Raoul said. The guilty verdict issued by a jury in October marked the first time an on-duty Chicago police officer was convicted for the killing of a black person.

A spokeswoman for Van Dyke's lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reporting by Suzannah Gonzales and Karen Pierog; Writing by Caroline Stauffer Editing by Bill Berkrot)