Wis. jury selection underway in Rittenhouse homicide trial
KENOSHA, Wis. — The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse opened Monday with the challenging task of seating jurors who hadn’t already made up their minds about the young aspiring police officer who shot two people to death and wounded a third during a night of anti-racism protests in Kenosha last year.
The jury that is ultimately selected in the politically charged case will have to decide whether Rittenhouse acted in self-defense, as his lawyers claim, or was engaged in vigilantism when he opened fire with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.
At least 28 of the 150 or so prospective jurors summoned for the trial had been dismissed, about a dozen of them because they had strong opinions about the case or doubts they could be fair. Some also expressed fear about public anger toward the jury but were not immediately dismissed from the case.
Rittenhouse, 18, faces life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him, first-degree homicide.
Rittenhouse was 17 when he traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois, just across the Wisconsin state line, during unrest that broke out in August 2020 after a
white Kenosha police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, in the back.
Rittenhouse said he went there to protect property after two previous nights marked by arson, gunfire and the ransacking of businesses.
As jury selection got underway, Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder stressed repeatedly that jurors must decide the case solely on what they hear in the courtroom, and cautioned: “This is not a political trial.
“It was mentioned by both political campaigns and the presidential campaign last year, in some instances very, very imprudently,” he said.
The judge said Rittenhouse’s constitutional right to a fair trial, not the Second Amendment right to bear arms, will come into play, and “I don’t want it to get sidetracked into other issues.”
Prosecutor Thomas Binger asked if any of the jurors had donated money to support Rittenhouse or if they knew anyone who did. None said so.
Rittenhouse has been painted by supporters on the right as a patriot who took a stand against lawlessness among demonstrators and exercised his Second Amendment gun rights. Others see him as a vigilante and police wannabe who never should have been armed in Kenosha in the first place.
Rittenhouse is white, as were those he shot, but many are watching his trial as the latest referendum on race and the American legal system, in part because the protesters were on the streets to decry police violence against Black people.
The start of jury selection was briefly delayed in the morning for unexplained reasons. During the delay, the judge played a mock game of “Jeopardy!” with prospective jurors in the courtroom, something he sometimes does as attorneys get organized.
Schroeder told the potential jurors he would select 20 of them — 12 jurors and eight alternates — to hear the case, which is expected to last about two weeks.
Rittenhouse fatally shot Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, after Rosenbaum chased Rittenhouse across a parking lot and threw a plastic bag at him shortly before midnight Aug. 25. Moments later, as Rittenhouse was running down a street, he shot and killed Anthony Huber, 26, a protester from Silver Lake, Wisconsin, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, a protester from West Allis, Wisconsin.
Rittenhouse faces two homicide counts and one of attempted homicide, along with charges of reckless endangering and illegal possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18.