Court Opinion

ID: 9782642
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-30 19:01:29.933772+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:27:47.412749
License: Public Domain

JUSTICE GARCIA, specially concurring: I disagree with the author that no error occurred in the trial court’s admonishments to the prospective jurors. 409 Ill. App. 3d at 11. I read our supreme court’s decision in People v. Thompson, 238 Ill. 2d 598, 939 N.E.2d 403 (2010), to require trial courts to strictly follow Rule 431(b). “Rule 431(b) *** mandates a specific question and response process. The trial court must ask each potential juror whether he or she understands and accepts each of the principles in the rule.” Id. at 607. See People v. Fountain, 408 Ill. App. 3d 33, 43 (2011) (“[Thompson discourages] [m]odification to the language in Rule 431(b) *** much as modification of pattern jury instructions is discouraged.”). I concur in the judgment only.