People v. Thompson

Defendant was convicted, after jury trial, of unlaweful use of a weapon based on 2005 incident. During jury selection in 2007 trial, the court did not question potential jurors as to whether they understood and accepted that the Defendant was not required to produce any evidence. Revised Supreme Court Rule 431(b), requiring such questioning, had taken effect two weeks prior. Defendant raised issue for the first time on appeal. No plain error, as the lack of questioning did not, in this case, necessarily result in a biased jury, and no indication that this jury was in fact biased. Jury had been admonished and instructed on these issues; defects did not render the trial fundamentally unfair or unreliable. Court declines to adopt a bright-line rule of reversal for every violation of Rule 431(b). (FITZGERALD, THOMAS, GARMAN, and KARMEIER, concurring.)