The murder trial of teenage Rittenhouse in the US ended on the second day without a verdict by Reuters

By Nathan Layne and Brendan McDermid

KENOSHA, Wisconsin (Reuters) – Kyle Rittenhouse’s Wisconsin murder trial jury ended its second day of debate without a verdict after a series of videos of teenagers’ deadly encounters in racial justice protests last Wednesday.

Defense attorneys made a new request to leave the trial, saying prosecutors had saved the high-definition version of a drone video as evidence and improved it to portray Rittenhouse as a threat. The prosecutor denied the defense’s allegation.

Rittenhouse, 18, of Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and Gaige Grosskreutz, 28, are charged with attempted murder for wounding themselves on August 25, 2020 in a chaotic night in protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

After deliberating for approximately 14 hours over two days, a jury of 7 women and 5 men asked the court to go home after 4:30 p.m., Central Time. The referee told the team to return on Thursday at 09:00 (1500 GMT).

The jury, which asked the jury if the videos in evidence could be seen again, spent about 45 minutes on the video of the drones about Rosenbaum’s shooting and the videos of Huber’s subsequent shootings, which hit a skateboard on the teenager, and Grosskreutz, which is . when he was armed with a shotgun.

The shootings took place in Kenosha in protests – mixed with fires, riots and robberies – after police shot a black man who had been shot from the waist down, Jacob Blake.

The most watched case of the right to self-defense in a civil trial has been George Zimmerman in 2013 since Trayvon Martin was acquitted in a deadly shooting against an unarmed black teenager. Like Zimmerman, Rittenhouse has become a polarized image, seen. as heroic for some conservatives who advocate for an expanding gun right and for many on the left as a symbol of irresponsible American gun culture.

Tensions began to rise on Wednesday outside the courthouse, with crowds growing to a few dozen in anticipation of the verdict. Two protesters were arrested after a push by a protester holding a placard in favor of Rittenhouse, and a man with a long gun was ordered to flee.

VIDEO CONFLICT

Rittenhouse, who was 17 years old at the time of the shootings, pleaded not guilty and testified last week that he fired his self-defense weapon. Rosenbaum, the first person to be shot that night, said he took the barrel of the gun.

Prosecutors have used an improved drone video to argue that Rittenhouse raised the rifle in a threatening manner before starting to chase Rosenbaum. The prosecutor says Rittenhouse therefore provoked the incident, and Huber and Grosskreutz felt the need to stop, creating a situation of “active firing.”

Lawyers in Rittenhouse accused the prosecution of keeping a high-definition version of the image until Saturday after the case was closed for new evidence. The prosecutor said the video was probably compressed by defense attorneys’ computers after it was sent.

The video issue of the drones was mentioned among several other factors in a motion asking the defense not to adjudicate on trial on Monday, which is that Rittenhouse could not be tried again.

Seeking a harmless trial on Wednesday, defense attorney Corey Chirafisi said the trial would have proceeded differently if they had been aware of the existence of a higher-resolution video earlier.

Mark Richards, another Rittenhouse attorney, said the higher-definition version of the video was improved to reflect the side mirror of a car and it seems wrong that Rittenhouse raised his rifle.

“In their improved video, they point to that side mirror while raising their arms,” Richards told Reuters. “It’s not, it’s a side mirror.”

The prosecution has denied any wrongdoing. Assistant prosecutor James Kraus of Kenosha County referred to the problem as a “technical incident” and said he would not overturn the trial.

Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder has not ruled on the motion without trial, and has allowed the jury to proceed with deliberations.