Judge Bruce Schroeder speaks to the attorneys about how the jury will view the evidence as they deliberate during Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wisconsin, November 17, 2021. – Sean Krajacic/Pool via Reuters
KENOSHA, Nov 18 – Jurors in the Wisconsin murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse ended their second day of deliberations without reaching a verdict, after reviewing a series of videos of the teenager’s deadly encounters at racial justice protests last year.
Rittenhouse, 18, is charged with killing Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and attempted homicide in the wounding of Gaige Grosskreutz, 28, during a chaotic night of protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin on August 25, 2020.
The jury of 7 women and 5 men have deliberated for roughly 14 hours over two days. Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder told them to return to court and resume discussing the case at 9am Central Time (1300 GMT) today.
The jury spent about 45 minutes on Wednesday watching drone video of the Rosenbaum shooting and other videos of the subsequent shootings of Huber and Grosskreutz.
Also yesterday, defence lawyers said they would ask for a mistrial because of a dispute with prosecutors over video evidence.
The shootings took place in Kenosha during protests – marred by arson, rioting and looting – that followed the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, who was left paralyzed from the waist down.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, has pleaded not guilty and took the stand last week to argue that he only fired his weapon after the men attacked him. He said Rosenbaum, the first person he shot that night, grabbed the barrel of his rifle.
Livestreamed, the Rittenhouse trial has emerged as the most closely watched case involving a civilian’s right to self-defence since George Zimmerman was acquitted in the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in 2013.
Like Zimmerman, Rittenhouse has become a polarizing figure, viewed as heroic by some conservatives who favour expansive gun rights and as a symbol of a reckless American gun culture by many on the left.
Kenosha has been on edge during the trial, and a small crowd of demonstrators assembled on the courthouse steps again yesterday, some holding signs in support of Rittenhouse and others calling for his conviction.
Outside the courthouse, a man carrying an AR-15-style rifle and a bullhorn was told by Kenosha County Sheriff’s deputies he could not be in the area because it was in close proximity to a school. The man, who called himself Maserati Mike, got in his black Maserati car and drove away without incident. – Reuters