Kyle Rittenhouse defence requests mistrial, alleging prosecution withheld evidence
There has been some last-minute legal drama in the highly-charged Kyle Rittenhouse trial — as tense scenes play out outside the court.
Kyle Rittenhouse’s legal team have accused prosecutors of holding back key video footage that is at the heart of their case in a formal push for a mistrial — bringing a late twist in the case as the jury continues it deliberation.
The jury has been dimissed for a second day today, they will return tomorrow.
The 12-person jury has convened for roughly 17 hours, from the start of their deliberations on Tuesday through a second day of deliberations on Wednesday, including reviewing video evidence for roughly 46 minutes.
Lawyers for the 18-year-old gunman already called for a mistrial during the hearing, and filed a formal seven-page request less than an hour before closing arguments, the Chicago Tribune reported.
The motion argues any conviction should be overruled and seeks to forbid any chance of a retrial if Rittenhouse is cleared of the five felonies he faces for the deadly triple shooting at last year’s Kenosha riots.
Rittenhouse’s lawyers also accused prosecutors of other lines of improper questioning and withholding higher-quality drone footage of Kenosha streets on the night of August 25 last year.
Overnight, the prosecution responded to the state’s latest request for a mistrial by arguing that Mr Rittenhouse’s previous lawyer was aware of the higher quality drone video, as was the defendant himself.
He also emphasised that the video has already been shown to the jury.
“The exhibit was played, not objected to, the authenticity was stipulated to, and the defence watched this exhibit,” he said. “That is what matters. That is what the jury has seen.”
Mr Kraus said the motion for mistrial is “inappropriate” and the jury should be allowed to review the video in deliberations.
Tensions are reaching boiling point in the US city of Kenosha as a man with a rifle arrived at the courthouse where the Kyle Rittenhouse trial is occurring.
The jury in the highly fraught case is deliberating their verdict for the second day and there are fears that the Wisconsin city could explode into violence regardless of the outcome.
As a crowd of Black Lives Matter and Rittenhouse supporters gathered outside the court overnight, there were tense scenes when a man approached the crowd with a rifle.
Incredible footage from outside the courthouse shows police officers calmly explaining to the man why he can’t carry the weapon.
“You’re within 1000 feet of the school, which you cannot be with a rifle without a CCW. So if you want to be here, you’re going to have to put the rifle away,” one police officer told the man.
JUST IN: Police questioned man for carrying a rifle outside Kenosha court, where Kyle Rittenhouse trial is being conducted. Police asked the man to remove the gun as officers said he was within 1000 feet of a school.pic.twitter.com/DlRhWQmG94
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) November 17, 2021
The man co-operated with police while surrounded by a swarm of reporters filming the incident.
Once he disposed of the gun, he returned to join the protest outside the court.
Ahead of the verdict, the governor of Wisconsin, Tony Evers, ordered 500 members of the National Guard to be put on standby in case of unrest.
The case has captured the attention of the nation and has become highly-politicised — with commentators around the nation weighing in heavily on the debate.
Marvel writer Dylan Park called for Kenosha, Wisconsin to be “burned to the ground”.
“White privilege is illegally carrying a weapon to an event with the intent to use it, murdering two people, then getting up on the stand and crying about being the victim. (And of course he’ll be acquitted.)” he tweeted.
He added in later, now deleted, tweet: “Burn that mfer to the ground.”
The jury began deliberations on Tuesday in the high-profile Rittenhouse case of the American teenager who shot dead two men and wounded another during protests and riots against police brutality last year in Kenosha.
The 18-year-old, testified during the two-week trial that he shot the three men with his AR-15 semiautomatic rifle after being attacked.
Prosecutors dismissed the self-defence claim during closing arguments, saying it was the then 17-year-old Rittenhouse who “provoked” the events on the night of August 25, 2020.
“You cannot hide behind self-defence if you provoked the incident,” Kenosha County assistant district attorney Thomas Binger said. “The defendant provoked everything.”
“No reasonable person would have done what the defendant did,” Binger told the jury. “And that makes your decision easy. He is guilty of all counts.”
A jury of 18 people heard the case in a Kenosha courtroom not far from where the shootings occurred.
The jury was whittled down to the final 12 on Tuesday, in a quirky procedure that saw Rittenhouse himself drawing folded slips of paper with juror numbers out of a drum to determine which six would be excluded from deliberations.
Rittenhouse faces five counts — one count of intentional homicide, one count of reckless homicide, one count of attempted intentional homicide and two counts of recklessly endangering safety.
The jury will have to render a unanimous verdict of guilty or not guilty on each charge.
The most serious charge — intentional homicide — carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
The case has drawn national attention because it arose from the “Black Lives Matter” demonstrations that swept the country last year.
Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has put 500 members of the state National Guard on standby in the event of trouble following a verdict.
Civil unrest erupted in Kenosha, a city of 100,000 on the shores of Lake Michigan, in August 2020 after a white policeman shot a Black man, Jacob Blake, several times during an arrest, leaving him paralysed.
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In right-wing and pro-gun circles, Rittenhouse, who claims he went to Kenosha to protect businesses from arsonists and looters and act as a medic, has been painted as a heroic figure.
Testifying in court last week, Rittenhouse said he “didn’t do anything wrong.” “I defended myself,” he said. “I did not intend to kill them. I intended to stop the people who were attacking me.” Binger, the prosecutor, said Rittenhouse — who lived in the neighbouring state of Illinois — had come to Kenosha as a self-appointed “junior policeman” and “made a series of reckless decisions.” “Nobody asked him to do that,” he said. “Nobody deputised him.” Defence lawyer Mark Richards said Rittenhouse “didn’t shoot at anyone until he was chased and cornered.” “Every person who was shot was attacking Kyle — one with a skateboard, one with his hands, one with his feet, one with a gun,” he said.
— with AFP
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