Judge Allowed Kyle Rittenhouse To Randomly Select The 12 Jurors Who Will Decide His Fate
On Tuesday (November 16), the judge presiding over Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial allowed the 18-year-old to participate in a game-show-style process of randomly selecting the jurors who will decide his fate.
According to ABC News, the 18 members of the Kenosha County, Wisconsin Circuit Court panel who heard evidence in the nationally televised trial of Rittenhouse had their juror numbers written on pieces of paper and placed into a metal raffle drum, which was spun with a crank.
Judge Bruce Schroeder then had Rittenhouse draw six numbers from the tumbler. The teen subsequently reached in and pulled out six numbers, one at a time.
Numbers 11, 58, 14, 45, 9 and 52 were read aloud by a clerk and became the alternates during deliberations, which are currently underway. The remaining will conduct deliberations.
"All right, members of the jury, it is for you to determine whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty of each of the offenses charged," Schroeder said before retiring the jury to consider their verdicts.
After roughly 8.5 hours, the jury headed home for the night and is scheduled to return Wednesday at 9 a.m. local time to resume deliberations.
Regarding the unusual manner in how the deliberating jurors were chosen, John P. Gross, director of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Public Defender Project, says it’s not unusual for the jury to be selected randomly in the state, but it is for a defendant to do so.
“It’s completely random, and whoever is picking is picking,” Gross told NBC News. “It was an interesting piece of theater having the judge inviting the defendant to make the draw.”
Ion Meyn, a fellow UW-Madison professor, said he was jarred by the judge's having Rittenhouse handle the lottery, claiming it has always been the courtroom clerk who does the draw.
“I know it’s a random selection, but I have some concerns about it,” Meyn told the news outlet. “To me, from the optics side, it doesn’t make sense. I don’t think it was a good idea.”
The national guard is being deployed in preparation for whatever verdict comes down, which could cause massive protests in Kenosha and throughout Wisconsin and the U.S.
Gaige Grosskreutz, who was shot by Rittenhouse but survived, is suing the city, the county and several law enforcement officers, claiming they condoned Rittenhouse’s efforts, as well as those of “white nationalists to violently dispel demonstrators protesting” Jacob Blake’s police shooting last year, according to NPR.
Grosskreutz's federal lawsuit filed in the Eastern District of Wisconsin states authorities in Kenosha both knew that armed vigilantes planned to patrol the protest and encouraged their participation.
The defense in the Rittenhouse trial rested its case on Thursday. Closing arguments are expected to begin on Monday, and then the jury will begin deliberations.
“The Kenosha community has been strong, resilient, and has come together through incredibly difficult times these past two years, and that healing is still ongoing,” Evers added. “I urge folks who are otherwise not from the area to please respect the community by reconsidering any plans to travel there and encourage those who might choose to assemble and exercise their First Amendment rights to do so safely and peacefully.”
Rittenhouse took the stand on Wednesday (November 10) in his defense, breaking down in tears as he described the incident in which he says he felt he was given no choice but to shoot three people, killing two.
The Antioch, Ill., man is charged with two counts of homicide for fatally shooting Anthony Huber, 26, Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and wounding Grosskreutz during a 2020 demonstration over the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
At the time he was 17 and his attorneys argued that he was legally permitted to carry the AR-15 rifle he used in the shooting.
