Barry Sheppard & Associates currently has a Petition for Leave to Appeal pending in the Illinois Supreme Court. In this case, the defendant was charged with soliciting sex acts from one he believed to be a minor over the internet. In fact, the purported minor was an undercover officer posing as a teenager. The Petition to the Illinois Supreme Court involves the admissibility of instant message transcripts into evidence. The Petition also addresses the salient issue of whether defendants who present an entrapment defense should be permitted to ask potential jurors in voire dire (the questioning of jurors during jury selection) whether they are willing to honor the entrapment defense — i.e., whether jurors are willing to negate a defendant’s criminal responsibility based on overreaching by law enforcement officers. Other interesting issues in this appeal include whether trial exhibits containing one party’s highlights or other extraneous markings should be permitted in the jury room during deliberations and whether a defendant should be permitted to introduce his lack of criminal history in support of his entrapment defense.