from Kenosha, Wisconsin; (AP) – Kyle Rittenhouse’s attorney asked a judge Wednesday to declare an unfair trial, saying he had received a low-level copy of a key video from prosecutors and would have contacted things differently had he received a higher quality video before.
Judge Bruce Schroeder did not immediately respond to the request, which asked the judge to review the video evidence after deliberations on a second day in the Rittenhouse murder trial.
Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi said he initially received a compressed version of the video taken from the drone, which prosecutors showed the judge during closing arguments. Prosecutors said it showed Rittenhouse demonstrating his rifle before being pursued by the first man shot to death in a turbulent street protest against racial injustice in Kenosha in the summer of 2020.
An 18-year-old Rittenhouse man faces life in prison on the most serious charges of killing two people and wounding a third with an AR-style semiautomatic rifle. The former young police cadet was as white as when he was shot.
Rittenhouse testified that he acted in self-defense, but prosecutors argued that he incited violence. This case is a high point in the American debate on firearms, ethnojustice protests, surveillance, and law and order.
Jurors weighed the charges against Rittenhouse for a second day, without reaching a verdict on whether it was the instigators of Tuesday’s bloodshed or relevant citizens who were attacked while trying to protect property.
During a nearly two-hour debate on Wednesday, the judge asked him to watch the video that was shown earlier at the hearing.
Prosecutor Thomas Binger said he could watch any video as many times as he wanted, and the judge appeared to agree.
“Sometimes there is a test that is absolutely critical … For me, if they want to see it 100 times, it’s them,” Schroeder said.
Defense attorneys have said they would object to a jury viewing the drone video. The same scenario sparked considerable controversy in previous hearings on technical questions about whether the video image was distorted when zoomed in.
Chirafisi said he did not get the same video quality until the testimony portion of the case was closed. If we want a “fair and level playground, we have to ask for it.” And I am listening to it. “The request will be made” without prejudice, “he said, meaning that prosecutors can retry Rittenhouse if the judge makes the request.
Prosecutors claimed that during the trial, the jury saw a high-quality version of the video and that it was played without objection.
“We are very focused on the technical error,” said prosecutor James Krause, adding that compressing a file when a defendant receives it is not the fault of the prosecutors.
Cross said the video was important because prosecutors argued that he was at the Rittenhouse booth when the rifle was said to have not been shown to protesters. Prosecutors argue that he provoked protesters, including Joseph Rosenbaum, who went after Rittenhouse before he shot Rittenhouse.
“I don’t think … that an unknown technical incident will lead to an unfair trial,” Krause said.
Both parties agreed to upload the videos to the computer, which the jury would like to see in the jury room.
Schroeder said he was “embarrassed” for accepting the video during the trial, but showed it to the court: “We can follow it.
Earlier that day, the judge said he would “think long and hard” about allowing television trials in the future, a minor role in determining which judges were replaced by the news about their decisions to call Rittenhouse the shot and not to Rittenhouse, and even so they have not ruled on the motion to nullify the defense.
Schroeder did not read the motion because he received it on Tuesday.
“It’s a shame irresponsible statements are being made,” Schroeder said in an article in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel about law school professors who failed to rule on his motion for mistrial.
After Schroeder allowed Rittenhouse to reach for Rafael’s drum and pull out a series of ballots, the case went to an anonymous jury who deliberately decided who of the 18 judges sitting on the case and who should be substituted.
That work is usually done by a court clerk, not a defendant. Schroeder said the defendants have been doing it for at least 20 years.
“I admit there are not a lot of courts that do that, probably none,” Schroeder said Wednesday.
The 12-person jury discussed the entire day Tuesday without reaching a decision.
The referees appeared overwhelmingly white. Prospective jurors in the selection process were not asked to identify their race and the court did not provide a racial breakdown.
Although the protests were generally silenced in court during the trial, on Wednesday a man wore body armor and carried a long rifle. When contacted by the police, he left and returned shortly thereafter without a weapon. The man was shouting statements against Black Lives Matter through a megaphone on Tuesday and was involved in a confrontation with another protester that day.
Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers, who faced criticism for his response to the Kenosha protests in 2020, demanded calm as the jury deliberated. He announced last week that 500 members of the National Guard would be ready for duty in Kenosha if necessary.
He said Rittenhouse was 17 years old when he was shot by a white Kenosha police officer when he was shot by a white Kenosha police officer on his way to Kenosha from his home in Antioch, Illinois.
In a series of quick confrontations in the streets, Rittenhouse shot and killed Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and now Guyge Groskrutz, 28.
During closing arguments Monday, prosecutor Thomas Binger said Rittenhouse was an “aspiring soldier” who sparked a deadly chain of events by bringing a rifle to the protest and pointing at protesters before chasing them down.
But Rittenhouse’s attorney, Mark Richards, argued that Rittenhouse was ambushed by “a madman”: Rosenbaum.
Rittenhouse testified that Rosenbaum chased after him and grabbed his rifle, fearing the weapon would be used against him. His version of Rosenbaum’s behavior is largely corroborated by video and some prosecution witnesses.
As for Huber, he was shot and killed in the video after he was hit by a skateboard at Rittenhouse. And Grosskreutz admitted that he showed Rittenhouse his own gun when he was shot.
In instructions to the jury, Schroeder said he believed the threat to the judge was illegal in accepting Rittenhouse’s right to self-defense and that the amount of force he used was reasonable and necessary.
Forlity reported from Minneapolis; Bauer of Madison, Wisconsin. Associated Press reporter Tammy Webber contributed from Fenton, Michigan.
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