After the conclusion of closing arguments, the jury in the Rittenhouse trial will begin deliberations Tuesday. Advocates on the left and right are girding for violence after the verdict.
Summary
The jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial will begin deliberations after a two-week trial over charges of murder against Rittenhouse.
- If convicted of the most serious charge, Rittenhouse could face life in prison.
- Closing arguments from the prosecutor revealed attempts to cast Rittenhouse as an “outsider” who had no business being in Kenosha that evening and calling Rittenhouse a “wannabe soldier” who lied about emergency medical training.
- The defense countered by saying at least one of the people shot and killed were on a mission to harm people, and if the firearm were wrestled from the defendant’s hands, it would have been used to kill more people.
- The jury’s main consideration will be whether Rittenhouse’s actions were justified as self-defense.
- Slate writer Aymann Ismail went to a New Jersey gun range to report on public sentiment of the Rittenhouse case, in which Ismail delineated a clear racial divide in the perception of Rittenhouse’s guilt or innocence.
- CNN spent the bulk of their reporting reiterating the prosecution’s characterization of Rittenhouse as provocateur who recklessly goaded one of the dead into attacking him.
- MSNBC Opinion Contributor Frank Figliuzzi wrote about “America’s comfort with violence” in predicting riots or bloodshed in the coming wake of the verdict, placing the “mainstreaming of violence” solely on the hands of the right.
- The New York Post highlighted what is characterized as “bizarre and dramatic moments” from closing statements, including the prosecutor’s horrible gun safety practices.
- In a mirror image of MSNBC’S Figliuzzi, right wing journalist Jack Posobiec told Breitbart he expects violence from the left after Rittenhouse’s verdict is revealed.
- RedState rebuked the prosecution’s closing arguments, saying they “were bad and troubling from an ethical point of view” potentially confusing the jury, and “tried to argue provocation at the last minute.”
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
