People v. Wheeler

The defendant, James Wheeler, was convicted of residential burglary by a jury and sentenced to 15 years’ imprisonment. He seeks automatic reversal under the plain error doctrine based on the trial judge’s alleged violation of Illinois Supreme Court Rule 431(b) (eff. May 1, 2007) for failing to establish that each prospective juror understood and agreed with the four principles enunciated by our supreme court in People v. Zehr, 103 Ill. 2d 472, 469 N.E.2d 1062 (1984). The State counters the trial judge complied with Rule 431(b) and, in any event, the alleged error is not a second-prong plain…