The jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial will reconvene Thursday morning, entering the third day of closed-door deliberations. We saw very little movement yesterday. The jury requested permission to review certain video evidence and the judge, prosecution and defense spent several hours discussing if and how the footage could be viewed.
While awaiting a verdict, conservatives and some in the right-wing media have doubled down in their support of Rittenhouse, the teen accused of killing two and injuring a third person when he shot people with an AR-15 during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.
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The jury in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial will reconvene Thursday morning, entering the third day of closed-door deliberations. We saw very little movement yesterday. The jury requested permission to review certain video evidence and the judge, prosecution and defense spent several hours discussing if and how the footage could be viewed.
While awaiting a verdict, conservatives and some in the right-wing media have doubled down in their support of Rittenhouse, the teen accused of killing two and injuring a third person when he shot people with an AR-15 during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.
Jury Breaks For The Night, No Verdict
The jury is going home without a verdict, Judge Schroeder announced.
“At the request of the jury, we will be breaking for the night,” Schroeder said.
Deliberations are now heading into their fourth day. Jurors will return again at 9 a.m./10 a.m. ET tomorrow.
One jurors asks if they can take the jury instructions home. Schroeder replies they are allowed to, “but you obviously can’t talk to anybody about them.”
Here’s Where The Jury Is At On Deliberations
So far the jury has been deliberating for more than 20 hours across three days, including all lunch breaks.
The jury has been deliberating for six hours today thus far. Jurors have not issued any new notes or asked any questions today, unlike yesterday when they asked to view videos.
Defense attorney Mark Richards appears to be in disbelief over how long deliberations are dragging out in the highly publicized Rittenhouse murder trial. Richards, who has been practicing law in Wisconsin for more than 30 years, told CNN that this is the longest he’s waited for a verdict.
MSNBC Banned From Courtroom For Rest Of Trial
Shortly after the Kenosha Police Department confirmed that a person who claimed to be affiliated with a national media outlet was briefly taken into custody last night and was suspected of trying to photograph jurors, Judge Schroeder moved to ban MSNBC from the courtroom for the rest of the trial.
“This is a very serious matter and I don’t know what the ultimate truth of it is, but it would go without much thinking that someone who is following a jury bus, that is a very serious matter and will be referred to the proper authorities for further action,” Schroeder said.
NBC News later confirmed in a statement that a freelancer for the network had received a traffic citation that took place near the jury van. However, the network stated that the freelancer “never contacted or intended to contact the jurors during deliberations, and never photographed or intended to photograph them.”
“We regret the incident and will fully cooperate with the authorities on any investigation,” the NBC statement continued.
Girlfriend Of Rittenhouse Victim: Teen Has Been Used As A ‘Figurehead’ For Right-Wingers
In an interview with a local NPR affiliate, Hannah Gittengs, the girlfriend of slain Rittenhouse victim Anthony Huber, said that she is prepared for any possible outcome of the trial because it doesn’t change what happened during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.
Gittengs said that she also has empathy, to some extent, for Rittenhouse as she decried how right-wingers have turned him into a “figurehead.”
“I would love to just sit face-to-face with him and his mama, I wish they could just show some remorse,” Gittengs said. “Had he not been instantly used as this figurehead for this right propaganda, and told he was a hero, no one will miss these criminals, I would like to think maybe he would feel bad about it.”
Gaetz Quips That He Would Hire Rittenhouse As An Intern
Adding to right-wingers’ glorification of Rittenhouse, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) suggested that he is considering hiring him as a congressional intern.
“You know what, Kyle Rittenhouse would probably make a good congressional intern. We may reach out to him and see if he’d be interested in helping the country in additional ways,” Gaetz said Wednesday during an appearance on Newsmax.
Gaetz reiterated that he believes Rittenhouse is not guilty.
“He deserves a not guilty verdict and I sure hope he gets it,” Gaetz said.
Hannity Paints Rittenhouse As A Victim Of Democrats
Doubling down on his support for Rittenhouse, Fox News primetime host Sean Hannity complained during his show last night that Rittenhouse is a victim of powerful Democrats’ “rush to judgment.”
Hannity griped that Rittenhouse trial jurors “now are face-to-face with an angry mob that, in all likelihood, they’re hearing with their very own ears.”
“This is what happens when powerful people in the media, in Washington, in the swamp … rush to judgment. And sadly, it happens every single time over and over again [with] the same cast of characters,” Hannity said. “The media mob … get it wrong and innocent people … pay the price.”
Hannity doubled down on conservatives’ stance that Rittenhouse acted out of “self-defense” when he shot three people, two fatally, during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.
As the Rittenhouse trial has heated up in the past two weeks, right-wingers have been critical of President Biden for appearing to suggest that Rittenhouse is a “white supremacist” in a video last year when the then-Democratic presidential candidate criticized Trump for refusing to condemn anti-BLM actors as “white supremacists.” The Biden tweet was accompanied by a video which showed an image of Rittenhouse’s face.
Jury Has Arrived
It’s day 3 of deliberations and the 14th day of the Rittenhouse murder trial. The jury has arrived and deliberations are underway.
We continue to await a verdict.
Third day of deliberations. The jury is hanging up on something.
Someone elsewhere mentioned this may mean they are coming up with a compromise - guilty on some charges, acquitted on others. In any case, it does mean that this wasn’t an open and shut case.
I would say that if I were Rittenhouse I would be more and more freaked out everyday. Could it be that this jury sees a person who put himself in a place where he didn’t have to be, shot three people and doesn’t exactly see that as self defense? It is simple after all.
Each hour of additional deliberation must be very hard for Kyle to endure.
Good.
At least for this judge and jury.