Rittenhouse team seeks mistrial
As jury deliberations continue, defense lawyers argue that an inferior copy of a key video hurt their case.
KENOSHA, Wis. — Kyle Rittenhouse’s lawyers asked the judge on Wednesday to declare a mistrial, saying they had received an inferior copy of a key video from prosecutors and would have approached his defense differently if they’d received the higher-quality video earlier.
Judge Bruce Schroeder did not immediately rule on the request, which came after jurors, deliberating for a second day in Rittenhouse’s murder trial, asked to review video evidence.
Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi said Rittenhouse’s team initially received a compressed version of a video taken by drone that prosecutors played for jurors in closing arguments. Prosecutors said it showed Rittenhouse pointing his gun at protesters before being chased by the first man he shot and killed during a night of turbulent street protests against racial injustice in Kenosha in August 2020.
Rittenhouse, 18, faces life in prison if convicted on the most serious charge for using an AR-style semiautomatic rifle to kill two men and wound a third. The former police youth cadet is white, as were those he shot.
Rittenhouse testified that he acted in self-defense, while prosecutors argued that he provoked the violence. The case has drawn nationwide attention amid the U.S. debate over guns, racial justice protests, vigilantism, and law and order.
Jurors weighed charges against Rittenhouse for a second day, trying to determine whether he was the instigator of the bloodshed or a concerned citizen who came under attack while trying to protect property.
About two hours into deliberations Wednesday, jurors asked to view video shown earlier in the trial.
Prosecutor Thomas Binger said they should be able to view any video as many times as they wanted, and the judge seemed to agree.
“Sometimes there is one piece of evidence that is absolutely critical .... To me, if they want to watch it 100 times, that’s them,” Schroeder said.
But defense attorneys said they would object to the jury viewing the drone video that prosecutors had played. Chirafisi said the defense didn’t get the same quality of video until after the evidentiary portion of the case was closed.
He said the defense was asking for a “level, fair playing field” and requesting a mistrial “without prejudice,” meaning prosecutors could try Rittenhouse again if the judge were to grant the request.
Prosecutors countered that the jury saw the highest-quality version of the video during the trial and that there were no objections when it was played.
“We’re focusing too heavily on a technological glitch,” prosecutor James Kraus said, adding that it wasn’t prosecutors’ fault that the defense received the file in compressed form.
Kraus said the video proves that Rittenhouse lied on the stand when he said he didn’t point his rifle at protesters. Prosecutors say he did point his rifle, which provoked protesters, including Joseph Rosenbaum, who then chased Rittenhouse and was shot and killed by him.
Both sides agreed with loading the videos that jurors wanted to see onto a computer for them to view in the jury room.
Schroeder said he had his “qualms” about admitting the video during the trial, but because it was shown in court “we might as well follow through with it.”
Earlier in the day, the judge said he would “think long and hard” about allowing televised trials in the future. He took exception to news stories about him not allowing the men Rittenhouse shot to be called victims, letting Rittenhouse play a minor role in determining which jurors were alternates and not yet ruling on the defense motion for a mistrial.
Schroeder said he hadn’t read the motion because he only recently received it.
Though protests have been generally muted around the courthouse, on Wednesday a man arrived carrying a long rifle and wearing what appeared to be body armor. He left after being approached by police, returning later without the gun. On Tuesday the man shouted anti-Black Lives Matter statements through a megaphone, and was involved in a confrontation with another protester.
Rittenhouse was 17 when he went to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Ill., in what he said was an effort to protect property from rioters in the days after a Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by a white Kenosha police officer.
Rittenhouse shot and killed Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28.