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What’s Happening as the Rittenhouse Trial Wraps Up Shows How Weak the Case Was From the Start

Closing arguments in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial took place Monday and some legal analysts say the prosecutors’ last-minute theatrics are a sign of desperation.

SO WHAT

Based on the facts, Rittenhouse’s self-defense claim has been solid from the start.

WHAT HAPPENED

It seems like all of America is tuning in to hear the jury verdict in the case of 18-year-old Rittenhouse, who is accused of murdering two men and wounding another at a racial justice riot in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August of last year.

 

Before the trial got underway on Nov. 1, most legal experts agreed that Rittenhouse had a strong claim for self-defense – and recent actions by the prosecution suggest the state’s attorneys are reaching to overcome that fact.

EXHIBIT A: During the state’s closing argument, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger claimed: “You lose the right to self-defense when you’re the one who brought the gun.”

EXHIBIT B: Binger also attempted to downplay Joseph Rosenbaum’s destructive and violent behavior on the night he was fatally shot by Rittenhouse.

EXHIBIT C: At one point during his closing argument, Binger pointed an AR-15 rifle at the jury while reenacting Rittenhouse’s alleged behavior on the night of the incident.

EXHIBIT D: Prosecutors displayed a photo from the 1989 Patrick Swayze action classic, “Road House,” while suggesting Rittenhouse should not have “brought a gun to a fistfight.”

EXHIBIT E: Assistant District Attorney James Kraus, while delivering the prosecution’s rebuttal argument, argued Rittenhouse should have let himself be attacked because “everybody takes a beating sometimes.”

EXHIBIT F: Kraus also called Rittenhouse “cowardly” for resorting to using firearm to fend off the multiple people chasing him, instead of “his own fists.”

 

THE ANALYSIS

Some legal experts have characterized prosecutors’ actions as “desperate.”

Fox News legal analyst Greg Jarrett on Monday accused Binger of attempting to “mislead the jury” with “sensational courtroom trickery.”

  • “I think he sees that he could lose it. It’s a case where the jury could come back not guilty,” Janine Geske, a former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice, told the Washington Post in regard to some of Binger’s risky legal maneuverings that have drawn the ire of Judge Bruce Schroeder.
  • “I think he’s cutting corners as close as he can to get his evidence in front of the jury. Unfortunately, he’s really angered the trial judge,” she added.

MORE BAD NEWS

On Monday, Schroeder dismissed a less serious charge against Rittenhouse, being a minor in possession of a firearm.

  • Schroder found that the somewhat murky prohibition on minors carrying short-barreled rifles or short-barreled shotguns did not apply to Rittenhouse, as the weapon he carried was not short-barreled.

The jury’s deliberations began on Tuesday.

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