Kyle Rittenhouse trial: jury prepares to deliberate after closing arguments
Prosecutors and defense attorneys delivered closing statements in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year old who has been charged with homicide after fatally shooting two men during racial justice protests last August in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, 27, when he shot them with a military-style rifle during night-time protests.
He faces charges that include intentional homicide – punishable by life in prison. Rittenhouse has pleaded not guilty to all charges. Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed a weapons charge before closing arguments on Tuesday morning.
In closing arguments, the prosecutor Thomas Binger said Rittenhouse was a “wannabe soldier” and had been “looking for trouble that night”. Binger repeatedly showed the jury drone video that he said depicted Rittenhouse pointing the rifle at demonstrators.
He told the jury: “You lose the right to self-defense when you’re the one who brought the gun, when you are the one creating the danger, when you’re the one provoking other people.”
The jury was expected to begin deliberations on Tuesday. The judge will use a raffle system to narrow the 18 jurors who have heard the two-week trial down to the final 12 who will decide Rittenhouse’s fate, with six alternates.
Rittenhouse was 17 when on 25 August 2020 he traveled from his home in Antioch, Illinois, across the state border to Kenosha, a city in throes of protests following a white police officer’s shooting of Jacob Blake, who is Black, after a call to a domestic disturbance.
Bystander video captured the critical minutes when Rittenhouse, armed with a Smith & Wesson AR-style semiautomatic rifle, shot the three men.
Rittenhouse is white, as are the men he shot. But the case has raised questions about racial justice, policing, firearms and white privilege that have polarized people far outside Kenosha.
For many, the case has symbolized the divergent ways in which US law enforcement has treated armed white militia members as compared with racial justice protestors. Rittenhouse, however, has become a hero for many conservatives who have raised money for his lawyers and whom see him as a righteous vigilante.
Rittenhouse has argued self-defense, leaving prosecutors with the burden of proving that his fear for his safety and his use of deadly force were unreasonable. Some legal experts said the prosecution had struggled to do so.
Binger began his closing arguments by telling jurors: “This case is not about politics.”
He continued: “[We all] agree that no one person’s life is more valuable than another … All life is sacred … I think we can also agree that we shouldn’t have 17-year-olds running around our streets with AR-15s, because this is exactly what happens.”
At one point, Binger raised the gun himself and pointed it at a wall to demonstrate the way Rittenhouse brandished his weapon in Rosenbaum’s direction, which, according to Binger, provoked the fatal clashes.
Rittenhouse, clad in blue suit and shirt, lowered his eyes as the prosecution went on to play video footage of him running away after the fatal shootings.
The defense attorney Mark Richards contested Binger’s closing arguments, saying there had been “a rush to judgment” in his client’s case while accusing prosecutors of “lying” or “misrepresenting” the video footage in which they argued Rittenhouse was the one who provoked the fatal encounter.
“Mr Rosenbaum was shot because he was chasing my client and going to kill him – take his gun and carry out the threats he made,” Richards told the jury.
Throughout the trial, multiple witnesses – including some of the state’s – have testified that Rosenbaum charged and lunged at Rittenhouse.
Richards argued that Grosskreutz should have “retreated” and not confronted Rittenhouse after the latter shot Rosenbaum. Grosskreutz should have “let him be and go give aid and comfort” to Rosenbaum, said Richards.
“Instead, he joins the mob, chasing Kyle, arms himself, and runs in – the fifth or sixth person there to the melee,” he added. “Mr Grosskreutz decides he’s going to shoot my client. Unfortunately, my client shot him first. If he retreated, it’s over.”
With a verdict near, the Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, said 500 national guard members would be prepared for duty in Kenosha if local law enforcement requested it.