Gun rights are cherished by many Americans and are enshrined in the U.S. #FOUND NOT GUILTY TRIAL#Live-streamed and dissected by cable TV pundits daily, the trial unfolded during a time of social and political polarization in the United States. Most lawyers "who looked at the evidence had a feeling the state would not be able to clear the threshold of disproving self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said. Wisconsin criminal defense lawyer Daniel Adams, who closely followed the trial, called the verdict “very dramatic but not entirely surprising.” The prosecution portrayed Rittenhouse as a reckless vigilante who provoked the violent encounters and showed no remorse for the men he shot with his AR-15-style rifle. The unrest followed the police shooting of a Black man named Jacob Blake, who was left paralyzed from the waist down. They said he was a civic-minded teenager who had been in Kenosha to protect private property after several nights of unrest in the city south of Milwaukee. The defense argued that Rittenhouse had been repeatedly attacked and had shot the men in fear for his life. In reaching their verdicts after more than three days of deliberations, the jury contended with dueling narratives from the defense and prosecution that offered vastly different portrayals of the teenager's actions on the night of the shootings. congressman Madison Cawthorn, a Republican representative from North Carolina, said on Instagram: "Kyle Rittenhouse is not guilty my friends. Constitution's Second Amendment, which grants Americans the right to bear arms. police and courts would have treated the teenager more harshly if he had been Black.īut conservatives saw the verdict as a validation of the U.S. Some Black activists said on Friday the U.S. The thorny issue of race also hung over the case, although Rittenhouse and the men he shot were all white. to go free," the Congressional Black Caucus said in a statement. "It is unconscionable our justice system would allow an armed vigilante. It was greeted with outrage by many on the political left and celebrated by gun rights supporters. President Joe Biden, who during last year's election campaign tweeted a video that appeared to link Rittenhouse to white supremacists, said on Friday he supported the jury's decision.īut elsewhere reaction showed deep partisan divisions. Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and fired a bullet that tore a chunk off the arm of Gaige Grosskreutz, 28. #FOUND NOT GUILTY FREE#"We are all so very happy that Kyle can live his life as a free and innocent man, but in this whole situation there are no winners, there are two people who lost their lives and that's not lost on us at all," David Hancock, a spokesperson for the Rittenhouse family, told Reuters. Rittenhouse broke down sobbing after the verdict and collapsed to the floor before being helped back into his chair.Īmid a heavy law enforcement presence, several dozen protesters lined the steps outside the courthouse after the verdict was read, some carrying placards in support of Rittenhouse and others expressing disappointment. The jury found Rittenhouse, 18, not guilty on all charges: two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide for wounding a third man, and two counts of recklessly endangering safety in protests marred by arson, rioting and looting on Aug.
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