- Jury deliberations began Tuesday in the
Kyle Rittenhouse trial. - Rittenhouse killed two people and injured a third during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer.
The Kyle Rittenhouse trial is drawing to a close, as jury deliberations began Tuesday morning in what has become one of the most high-profile homicide cases in the country.
Rittenhouse, 18, stands accused of killing two people and injuring a third during unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020. He has pleaded not guilty to all the charges against him, and argued that he acted in self defense.
Americans have been able to follow along via livestream as the case was argued in court and at times got contentious. The judge repeatedly admonished the prosecution, including one moment where he accused lead prosecutor Thomas Binger of a "grave constitutional violation." The defense has filed a motion for a mistrial with prejudice — meaning Rittenhouse could not be retried on the same charges — over some of Binger's lines of questioning.
Witnesses called by the prosecution also gave testimony that suggested Rittenhouse acted in self-defense, inadvertently undermining the state's case.
As the nation braces for a verdict, Insider spoke to three legal experts who evaluated the prosecution's performance, in particular that of Binger, and the reviews were mixed. The Kenosha County District Attorney's office did not immediately respond Tuesday to Insider's request for comment.
The state was too ambitious in charging Rittenhouse, according to one legal expert
Paul E. Bucher, a defense attorney based in Waukesha County, Wisconsin, and who spent nearly three decades working as a prosecutor, told Insider the Kenosha County District Attorney's office was overly confident about the charges they could successfully prosecute against Rittenhouse. Bucher said prosecutors complicated what in his mind is a "straight up homicide case" by "cluttering it up with unnecessary junk."
In addition to two counts of first-degree intentional homicide and one count of attempted first-degree homicide, prosecutors levied four other charges against Rittenhouse. Those charges included two counts of reckless endangerment and two less-serious counts that were eventually tossed during the trial, related to a curfew violation and possessing a dangerous weapon as a minor.
"This is a homicide case and you should treat it as that, rather than throwing everything against the wall and seeing what sticks," Bucher said.
If he were prosecuting the case, Bucher said he would have dropped the lesser charges in favor of focusing on the homicide and attempted homicide charges.
By throwing the book at Rittenhouse, Bucher said prosecutors lost "focus on what this case is about," which he said is the two people who were killed and a third who nearly had his "arm blown off."
This lack of focus made it hard for the prosecution to argue a succinct case to the jury, Bucher said.
"I saw a bunch of gobbledygook, a lot of arguments over nothing," Bucher said. "There was a lot of junk coming into the case that was not relevant."
Prosecutors ran afoul of the judge multiple times during the trial
The prosecution drew Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder's ire throughout the trial. In one notable moment, Schroeder yelled at the prosecution for questioning why Rittenhouse stayed silent on the shootings until the trial, which Schroeder said crossed the line into violating Rittenhouse's constitutional right not to incriminate himself.
Schroeder also called out Binger for trying to slip evidence into court that he had forbidden in a pre-trial ruling. Binger tried to reference a video — recorded weeks before the Kenosha shootings — in which Rittenhouse commented about people leaving a CVS pharmacy clutching items: "I wish I had my fucking AR, I'd start shooting rounds at them," but the prosecutor was shut down.
Based on what he has seen of the trial, Bucher said he sided with Schroeder and thinks the judge could have been "much more strict if he wanted to be."
Meanwhile, Marquette University law professor Janine Geske and Daniel Maxwell, a distinguished criminal justice lecturer at the University of New Haven, both felt that the prosecution did a good job.
Geske said she doesn't think Binger set out to violate Rittenhouse's constitutional rights by questioning why he had chosen to remain silent until now, but that doing so "has the potential for blowing up a whole case."
But Geske said she believes Binger was intentionally trying to slip Rittenhouse's comments about "shooting rounds" past the judge, in order to illustrate that Rittenhouse's comments on the stand — that he believes it's inappropriate to use deadly force to protect property — did not align with his actions.
"I think he knows it's a tough case, it's an extremely tough case, and I think he just wanted that evidence in," Geske said of Binger. "My guess is that the state thought the judge was going to allow it."
The fact that the judge snapped at Binger over this issue is likely a reflection of how stressful and tiring these cases are, Geske said.
"The prosecution just tried to get away with it and didn't succeed," she said. "I don't think it harmed them in the long run."
Maxwell added that it's "not uncommon for prosecutors and defense attorneys to push for their arguments a little bit." The heated exchanges between the judge and Binger have been "blown out of proportion," he added.
Bucher says the prosecution could have more effectively argued their case if they made their point quickly, rather than spending about two hours Monday on closing statements, according to one Law & Crime reporter's estimates.
"If you hadn't already alienated this jury already, this is the nail in the coffin," Bucher said.
Geske disagreed, saying she thought the closing arguments were one of the highlights of the prosecution's performance. Prosecutors painted Rittenhouse as a "wannabe soldier" who went looking for trouble in Kenosha the evening of the shooting, according to Insider's Michelle Mark, who has been covering the trial.
"I thought Binger did a nice job of talking about the theme, the provocation, and really focusing the jury on how Rittenhouse had been the aggressor," she said.
Rittenhouse's performance on the stand was out of prosecutors' control
The legal experts agreed that there were aspects of the trial that were out of prosecutors' hands, such as how well Rittenhouse performed on the stand, and calling witnesses that inadvertently, and sometimes explicitly, made statements supporting the self-defense argument.
"There's a risk in getting any witness up there, but these were the people who were there, so they had to tell their story," Maxwell said.
Bucher said he sympathizes with the state on this point, saying sometimes prosecutors are forced "to put on a bad witness," or find that a witness says a completely different thing on the stand than was planned.
As for Rittenhouse's decision to testify, Bucher said that every prosecutor salivates at the prospect of a defendant crumbling on the stand. But Rittenhouse likely performed better than the prosecution expected, Bucher said.
During his testimony, Rittenhouse started crying uncontrollably when describing his state of mind as he was being pursued by the first man he killed, Joseph Rosenbaum. The judge ordered a recess, and after court resumed, Rittenhouse was controlled and stuck to his story that he only acted in self defense.
"I believe they thought Mr. Rittenhouse might not have done as well as he did," Bucher said. "He held his own for sure."
"Rittenhouse was prepared so well by his lawyers that the prosecution didn't get much out of him," Geske said, adding of Binger's cross examination, "I thought he was very methodical."
Maxwell predicts Rittenhouse won't escape conviction, given that Schroeder permitted the jury to consider lesser charges that will allow Rittenhouse "to be held accountable" while not "punishing him to the max."
But Maxwell doesn't think the prosecution will be to blame if Rittenhouse is acquitted.
"I think if he gets off the hook, this will be a reflection of our current times in general," he said.