While most attention is directed to the fact that the best defense witnesses for Kyle seem to the the prosecution’s witnesses that were supposed to show his guilt, I noticed somethinng on Wednesday that most analysts seem to be blowing off as largely inconsequential.
The curfew violation charge was dismissed.
Sure, that was only a ticketing offense, with no real criminal penalties. But it would have been the way it interacted with other charges that interested me.
Kyle Rittenhouse is claiming self defense. I think I’ve made it pretty clear that, having watched a lot of videos, read witness statements, studied Wisconsin state laws, I agree. But typically, “self defense” claims falter if the claimant was unlawfully present. Home invaders, for instance, generally don’t get to claim self defense for shooting back at — actual defensive — home residents.
The curfew violation charge might have been used to demonstrate that Kyle was unlawfully present, out looking for trouble (more on that in a moment), and thus not entitled to a self defense claim. This shoots — no p… OK, pun intended — a huge hole in the prosecution’s… case.
You might think that the standing unlawful possession charge would also impugn a self defense claim. Due to the constitutionally vague conflicts between state statutes, convicting Kyle on that is questionable, and it doesn’t really affect self defense. Merely being in unlawful possession of a firearm does not mean you have no right right to defend yourself. Possibly the best example of this was a 1993 Colorado case in which the shooter killed two and wounded five with a fully-automatic AK-47. He was acquitted of murder and assault charges on self defense grounds, although later convicted in federal court on NFA charges of possession of an unregistered machinegun.
Let’s “circle back” to the argument (a little late for prosecution to raise it now the state has rested) that Kyle might’ve been “looking” for trouble.
I had noticed that in the most pertinent videos, Kyle seemed to have no ballistic vest/body armor, unlike many of the other neighborhood defenders. In testimony, we learned that he did have armor. But he generously loaned it to someone he deemed more in need of the protection than himself, since he was only out there to help people.
Hardly the act of a vigilante intending to violently confront others. Just one more reason to dust off that Medal of Freedom for Kyle petition.
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IMHO the prosecution’s witnesses pretty much made the case for the defense of self defense.
I was of the opinion that the defense didn’t even need to call a defense witness, similar to what happened in the Randy Weaver trial.
Carl, what do you think about what happened today with Kyle on the stand?
I’m still listening to testimony and following the Legal Insurrection liveblog.
Under defense direct, I think Kyle stated his case quite well.
I’m concerned about prosecution redirect, because they may be able to take advantage of Kyle’s emotional reaction to the memories, which clearly bother him. OTOH, prosecution could very easily come across as uselessly badgering poor kid (so far, their track record sucks).
+1
Holy f…. now the judge is ALREADY calling Prosecution Binger out for constitutional violation!!
I watched quite a bit of the footage today, and from what I saw, Rittenhause was put on the stand by his lawyers, normally a bad move, in a stroke of brilliance. The young man not only held his own, but he also didn’t let the prosecution force him into what in tennis would be termed any unforced errors.
In just one point, the prosecutor tried to get Kyle to say that he intended to kill the last person shot, who survived, yet Kyle refused to take the bait, over and over again.
It seems somewhat clear that the prosecutors are outclassed, but that they are also fighting a losing case, which should never have been brought in the first case, and was a total political hit job. No doubt there will be backlash after this is all over, with reassignments and such in the prosecutor’s office.
The prosecution needs to be sanctioned and lose their law licenses. Tar and feathers would be a nice touch too!
I’ve been following this as well. Jack Posobiec has had some interesting info on his podcasts. One of his points has been that Kyle was persecuted to distract from the fact the corrupt mayor let Kenosha burn. The corrupt mayor John Antaramian is related to the corrupt city attorney Ed Antaramian and also the lead detective Benjamin Antaramian who is his nephew. Ed is the facepalm meme going viral.
This particular podcast has the sound clip of the Richie McGinnis appearance on the stand, the trial part starts about 14 min in https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/human-events-daily-nov-5-2021-fiona-hill-implicated/id1585243541?i=1000540926216
Also the FIB has drone footage of this the whole time, as did the prosecution, which they did not turn over to the defense.
The FIB had it for 14 months. Why exactly is it again our tax dollars go to the FIB? https://twitter.com/i/status/1455579165739167752
But one of my favorite parts was the look on the stenographer’s face when Grosskruetz answered the question. If ever there was a facial “Wait, what?” moment, this was it. I admit, I’ve had to watch it more than once. Others have commented on the look on Grosskruetz’s face is “damn, there went my 10 million lawsuit”. https://twitter.com/i/status/1457774701673996298
Bear is 100% correct, Medal of Freedom for Kyle Rittenhouse!