By Illinois Radio Network/Benjamin Yount

SPRINGFIELD – Attorney General Kwame Raoul is being careful in his request to revisit the sentence of former cop Jason Van Dyke.

Raoul on Monday asked the Illinois Supreme Court to review former officer Jason Van Dyke’s sentence for shooting Laquan McDonald. A jury convicted Van Dyke of in October of second-degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery, one for each shot fired at the teenager.

Raoul said he’s not questioning the judge in the case or that he wants Van Dyke to spend more time in prison for McDonald’s 2015 death.

Instead, Raoul said he’s not sure that state was followed.

“I’m not going to opine on my opinion of the length of the sentence,” Raoul told reporters in Chicago on Monday. “What I will opine on is whether I think the law should be followed. And I think the law should be followed.”

The judge sentenced Van Dyke to just under seven years in prison for second-degree murder and just one count of aggravated battery, instead of the 16 that he was charged with. He could be released in as little as three years.

“While there are many who have opined on the appropriateness of the length of sentence in this matter. I recognize that a trial judge’s discretion in sentencing is to be given great deference,” Raoul said. “However, it is in the interest of justice that we do all within in our power to make sure that such exercise of discretion be applied consistently with the mandates of law. No matter who the defendant, and no matter who the victim in a particular case.”