Jurors in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial on Wednesday will deliberate for a second day after not yet reaching a verdict on whether Rittenhouse was guilty of homicide or acted in self-defense in a shooting during police brutality protests in 2020.
The first day of jury deliberations in the Kenosha, Wisconsin, courthouse were largely quiet after the final 12 jurors were selected when Rittenhouse himself randomly drew numbers from a tumbler.
The jury Tuesday made brief requests for extra copies of the instructions Judge Bruce Schroeder read them before closing arguments.
Rittenhouse, 18, is charged with the first-degree intentional homicide of Anthony Huber, first-degree reckless homicide of Joseph Rosenbaum and attempted first-degree intentional homicide of Gaige Grosskreutz. He also faces two reckless endangerment charges, and the jury can consider some lesser included charges on certain counts.
He would face a mandatory life sentence if convicted of the most serious charge.
The trial pitted two competing narratives of the night of Aug. 25, 2020, against each other. Rittenhouse's defense lawyers said Rittenhouse, 17 at the time, was in Kenosha to help the community after nights of protest and killed two men and wounded another in self-defense. Prosecutors say the teenager was looking for trouble, armed with an AR-15 style rifle, and provoked the attacks, thereby losing any right to self-defense.
The protests were taking place after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, multiple times. Blake survived but was paralyzed from the waist down. The officer was cleared of any state or federal violations.
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Jury asks for extra copies of instructions; Rittenhouse draws numbers from tumbler
The jury asked no questions of Schroeder during their first day of deliberations Tuesday beyond requests for additional copies of their juror instructions.
Included in those instructions are the legal requirements the prosecution must meet to prove each charge and whether Rittenhouse provoked the shootings as well as the requirements the defense must meet to prove self-defense.
Schroeder briefly raised eyebrows Tuesday when he allowed Rittenhouse to draw numbers from a tumbler to select the six alternates and set the final 12 jurors. The alternates will remain at the courthouse in case they are needed.
More on Schroeder:Kyle Rittenhouse judge has gotten his share of criticism. Can a judge be removed from a case? Not likely.
Schroeder said he has allowed defendants to perform such a move for the last 20 years. While not illegal or unethical, the task is usually reserved for the clerk of courts, said Ion Meyn, an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School.
The jury consists of five males and seven females and 11 white people and one person of color. The six alternates are an even split of white males and females.
Deliberations ran from around 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Tuesday. Schroeder said he would let jurors decide how late they wanted to stay.
What happens to defense's motion for a mistrial?
During the trial, Rittenhouse's defense attorneys asked Schroeder for a mistrial with prejudice, meaning Rittenhouse could not be retried.
The motion came after they objected to questioning from Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger, who they said commented on Rittenhouse's right to remain silent and tried to introduce evidence Schroeder did not allow in the trial.
Binger said his comments merely reflected that Rittenhouse might be able to tailor his testimony to the days of trial he had been hearing and that he thought Schroeder had not issued a final ruling on the evidence he started to bring up.
Schroeder admonished him, yelling at the prosecutor with the jury out of the room. However, the judge has not yet issued a ruling on the mistrial motion.
More on mistrial motion:A jury is weighing the Kyle Rittenhouse case, but a mistrial motion is still pending. What happens now?
Keith Findley, a professor at the University of Wisconsin Law School, called the lack of decision "odd."
"The only reason I can think of for waiting is perhaps he wants to give the jury a chance to acquit so he doesn’t have to, but that’s speculation on my part," Findley, co-founder of the Wisconsin Innocence Project, said.
"I’m not sure why the judge has waited to rule," said Michael O'Hear, professor of criminal law at Marquette Law School. "It seems unlikely to me that he would have turned the case over to the jury if he expected to grant the mistrial."
National Guard on standby as Kenosha waits on verdict
In anticipation of the potential for violence after a verdict, Gov. Tony Evers sent about 500 Wisconsin National Guard troops to the Kenosha area to be on standby.
The troops would help the "hundreds of officers from volunteering law enforcement agencies" if they need assistance in case of unrest, according to Evers' office.
Groups of demonstrators were outside the courthouse Tuesday as they waited on word from the jury. Those protesting chanted, "no justice, no peace" and held up signs.
"As of now, we really don’t have a lot of intel suggesting we’re going to have an issue down here," said Sgt. David Wright, spokesperson for the Kenosha County Sheriff's Department. "We’ve been working in contact with our local, state and federal law enforcement partners to ensure the safety of our community."
Wright noted Kenosha County Sheriff David Beth neither declared an emergency nor requested the National Guard.
"I’m sure it will be very nice to have that in place if we do need it," Wright said. "But we’re not anticipating to have any issues down here. Everyone who has been down here has been very cordial and not really showing any signs of aggression or anything like that."
Closing arguments: Helping community or active shooter?
In their closing arguments Monday, lawyers summarized how they saw the facts of the case and made their final pitch to jurors as to how to rule.
Prosecutors said Rittenhouse had no business being in Kenosha that night. He brought a gun to "a fistfight" and created an active shooter situation, Binger said. Even if he did fear for his safety, he should have exhausted all other options, like running or fighting without firing his gun before he shot the men, Binger added.
"The defendant wants you to believe because he's the one who brought the gun, he's allowed to kill," Binger said.
'Wannabe soldier' vs. attacked by 'mob':Prosecutors, defense make final arguments in Kyle Rittenhouse trial
Defense lawyer Mark Richards painted Rittenhouse as a teen in the community where his father lived trying to help others. Richards focused on Rosenbaum as the catalyst of the night's tragedies and said Rittenhouse faced a mob attacking him.
"I'm glad he shot him, because if Joseph Rosenbaum had got that gun, I don't for a minute believe he wouldn't have used it against somebody else. He was irrational and crazy," Richards said.
"The only imminent danger that night was Kyle Rittenhouse," Assistant District Attorney James Kraus told jurors during the state's rebuttal.
Contributing: Molly Beck and Elliot Hughes, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel; The Associated Press
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