Attorney Ben Crump has become a household name as the go-to lawyer for families impacted by police violence, including those of Michael Brown, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake and many others. He was in Chicago Tuesday calling for federal police reform.
Jacob Blake
“This case has nothing to do with race. It never had anything to do with race. It had to do with the right to self-defense,” 18-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse tells Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview set to air Monday night.
Demonstrators traced the route Rittenhouse took the night in August last year when he shot and killed two people and wounded a third during protests over police brutality. They carried signs that said “Reject Racist Vigilante Terror” and “THE WHOLE SYSTEM IS GUILTY!” A couple of protesters carried long guns.
Protesters have gathered following the acquittal of Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse killed two people and injured another during a protest against police brutality in Wisconsin last year. Protests have been held in several U.S. cities into Saturday over the verdict, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago.
The murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse is forcing the nation to revisit conversations about race and privilege in the criminal justice system, with many wondering if Rittenhouse would have received the same treatment if he were Black.
Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges Friday after pleading self-defense in the deadly Kenosha shootings that became a flashpoint in the nation’s debate over guns, vigilantism and racial injustice.
Jurors in the trial of Antioch native Kyle Rittenhouse have now completed three days of deliberation and still no verdict. This comes as demonstrators made their voices heard outside the Kenosha County Courthouse again, and as the outspoken judge in the case admonished a member of the news media.
The members of the panel will return on Friday morning to resume their work. Unlike on previous days, they had no questions and no requests to view any evidence Thursday in the politically and racially fraught case.
Judge Bruce Schroeder did not immediately rule on the request, the second mistrial motion from the defense in a week.
The jury at Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial deliberated a full day on Tuesday without reaching a verdict over whether he was the instigator in a night of bloodshed in Kenosha or a concerned citizen who came under attack while trying to protect property.
After a full day of arguments, the jurors were told to return Tuesday morning for the start of deliberations in the case that has stirred fierce debate in the U.S. over guns, vigilantism and law and order.
Kyle Rittenhouse is charged with several counts, including homicide and attempted homicide. Wisconsin law allows the prosecution and defense to ask that jurors be told they can consider lesser charges as part of the instructions they receive before deliberating the case.
The defense and prosecution asked the judge to hold closing arguments on Monday, and he said he would take it under consideration.
The murder case against Kyle Rittenhouse was thrown into jeopardy Wednesday when his lawyers asked for a mistrial over what appeared to be out-of-bounds questions asked of Rittenhouse by the chief prosecutor. The judge did not immediately rule on the request.
The first man killed by Kyle Rittenhouse on the streets of Kenosha was shot at a range of just a few feet and had soot injuries that could indicate he had his hand over the barrel of Rittenhouse’s rifle, a pathologist testified Tuesday.
Gaige Grosskreutz, the third and final man gunned down by Rittenhouse during a night of turbulent racial-justice protests in the summer of 2020, took the stand at Rittenhouse’s murder trial and recounted how he drew his own pistol after the bloodshed started.
