A jury has found Kyle Rittenhouse, who was charged with homicide after fatally shooting two people and injuring a third during protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last year, not guilty on all counts.
The jury's verdict was read on Friday after over three days of deliberations. Rittenhouse faced five charges, includingreckless homicide, intentional homicide, and attempted intentional homicide after he fatally shot Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum and injured Gaige Grosskreutz amid unrest sparked by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in 2020.
Rittenhouse's legal team made the case during the trial that he acted in self-defense, and Rittenhouse told the jurors, "I didn't do anything wrong. I defended myself." Prosecutors told jurors Rittenhouse was one of a number of people drawn like "moths to a flame" to the unrest in Kenosha but that "the evidence will show that the only person that killed anyone was the defendant, Kyle Rittenhouse." Rittenhouse was also found not guilty of recklessly endangering safety.
After the verdict was read, Judge Bruce Schroeder said he "couldn't have asked for a better jury to work with." On CNN, legal analyst Elie Honig noted that "the law in Wisconsin is very favorable to a defendent claiming self-defense," as the "prosecution has to affirmatively disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt." Honig also pointed out that the prosecution can't appeal the verdict, "so this will be the end of the state prosecution of Kyle Rittenhouse."
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