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  4. The jury deliberating Kyle Rittenhouse's fate is rewatching multiple videos shown in court, while the defense is again asking for a mistrial

The jury deliberating Kyle Rittenhouse's fate is rewatching multiple videos shown in court, while the defense is again asking for a mistrial

Michelle Mark   

The jury deliberating Kyle Rittenhouse's fate is rewatching multiple videos shown in court, while the defense is again asking for a mistrial
LifeInternational2 min read
  • A Wisconsin jury requested to see multiple videos on their second day of deliberating Kyle Rittenhouse's fate.
  • One of the videos, drone footage showing Rittenhouse's first shooting, prompted a mistrial request from defense attorneys.

The Wisconsin jury deliberating Kyle Rittenhouse's fate rewatched multiple videos on Wednesday that had been played to them over the course of the two-week trial, including hotly disputed drone footage that defense attorneys argued was grounds for a mistrial.

Wednesday marked the second day of deliberations as the jury weighed charges against Rittenhouse for fatally shooting two men and injuring a third on August 25, 2020. The 18-year-old has pleaded not guilty to all five charges against him, testifying that he opened fire in self-defense because the men attacked him.

The videos the jury requested to see include two clips — one at full speed and another in slow motion — showing the moment Rittenhouse shot Gaige Grosskreutz. Grosskreutz, who survived the shooting, had approached Rittenhouse while holding a pistol, briefly raised his hands in surrender, then darted forward just before Rittenhouse opened fire.

The jury also requested to see footage that Grosskreutz, himself, recorded in the moments leading up to the shooting.

The most contentious video the jurors asked to see, which provoked another request for a mistrial from the defense, was drone footage showing the first shooting from that evening.

Prosecutors argued that the footage showed Rittenhouse raising his AR-15 rifle and pointing it at a man named Joshua Ziminski, which they argued proves that Rittenhouse had been the "initial aggressor" and provoked Joseph Rosenbaum to begin chasing him.

Rittenhouse's defense attorneys disagreed that the video showed Rittenhouse pointing his rifle. They also accused prosecutors of providing them a lower-quality version of the video that was far more grainy than the original.

Though prosecutors said they hadn't intentionally provided a blurry version of the video to the defense, suggesting it had been inadvertently compressed when they emailed it to Rittenhouse's attorneys, the defense said they wanted "a level, fair playing field," even if that meant a new trial.

"We will all have the same information, the same quality of videos, and I think that is required in a case like this where [Rittenhouse] is facing a life sentence without parole if he is convicted," Rittenhouse's defense attorney, Corey Chirafisi, argued.

Kenosha County Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder did not immediately rule on a mistrial. Schroeder said he'd had "qualms" about the video when it was played at trial, but he said since jurors had already seen the video, it made sense to let them rewatch it during deliberations.

But the judge warned prosecutors that if the drone video proves unreliable, "it's going to be ugly."

It's unclear why jurors wanted to see the videos on Wednesday, or how far along in their deliberations they were. On Tuesday, the jury requested extra copies of the 36-page instructional guide Schroeder provided.

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