Here’s What To Know As Jury Selection Begins In The Kyle Rittenhouse Trial

KENOSHA, WI — Jury selection is scheduled to begin Monday in the homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, who is accused of shooting and killing two protesters in Kenosha in 2020.

Rittenhouse is charged with first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted homicide, two counts of recklessly endangering safety and possessing a dangerous weapon while under 18.

About 300 summons were mailed for Monday to fill slots for 12 jurors and four alternates, Kenosha County Clerk of Circuit Court Rebecca Matoska-Mentink told Patch.

Defense attorneys Corey Chirafisi and Mark Richards hoped to persuade jurors that Rittenhouse’s shooting was an act of self-defense, and they enlisted the help of a use-of-force expert in early October to aid the defense.

The jury will be charged with determining whether the people who were shot posed a threat to Rittenhouse and if he was aware of their behavior, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee law professor Keith Findley told The New York Times.

The prosecutors — Assistant District Attorneys Thomas Binger and James Kraus — will argue that Rittenhouse wasn’t in Kenosha to protect businesses but rather to cause violence against protesters with opposing beliefs. The prosecution said Rittenhouse crossed from Illinois to Wisconsin that night and described him as a “teenage vigilante, involving himself in things that don’t concern him.”

Protests in Kenosha followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot and paralyzed by a white police officer. The days of protest took place amid a backdrop of racial justice demonstrations across the country in 2020. Local and federal investigators cleared Rusten Sheskey, the officer who shot Blake, of wrongdoing.

The court held several motion hearings in October to discuss evidence and terms that can and cannot be used in the case.

No “Victims” In Trial, Illegal Weapons Charge Kept, Proud Boys Affiliation Severed

Kenosha Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder, who is presiding over the trial, ruled Monday that Rittenhouse’s defense attorneys could use words such as “looter” to describe Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, Anthony Huber, 26, and Gaige Grosskreutz, who were all shot on the night of Aug. 25, 2020. Rosenbaum and Huber both died; Grosskreutz survived.

Schroeder also forbade the use of “victim” at the trial in referring to the men, saying he felt the word was loaded.

Chirafisi and Richards filed a motion to dismiss the charge that Rittenhouse illegally possessed his rifle during the Kenosha protest, arguing that state laws didn’t apply to him since he was 17. It’s illegal for some under 18 to “go armed” with a deadly weapon in Wisconsin, but Richards said that legal history showed 16- and 17-year-olds could possess rifles and shotguns. Schroeder rejected the motion, but said he would consider a separate motion Monday.

John Black, a law enforcement and weapons expert enlisted by the defense, argued that Rittenhouse wasn’t the initiator of his own actions at the shooting. Black is set to testify at trial and to comment on video evidence.

Prosecutors filed a motion to use videos and photos of Rittenhouse participating in a fight with his sister and an unnamed girl in a video, citing them as evidence of his “state of mind” before the shooting last year.

They also provided video of a man believed to be Rittenhouse, who is seen threatening people walking out of a CVS, saying, “Bro, I wish I had my [expletive] AR. I’d start shooting rounds at them.” The judge rejected using both videos in the trial, but said he would consider the CVS video later.

Binger and Kraus also wanted to use photographs of Rittenhouse meeting the Proud Boys — a group the Southern Poverty Law Center says is associated with known extremists — in a Racine bar in January as evidence of his state of mind. Schroeder rejected the motion, saying the event was too far removed from the shooting.