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The anonymous jury, whose racial make-up was not disclosed by the court but appeared to be overwhelmingly white, deliberated for close to 3½ days.
President Joe Biden called for calm, saying that while the outcome would “leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken.”
Rittenhouse could have gotten life in prison if found guilty on the most serious charge, first-degree intentional homicide, or what some other states call first-degree murder. Two other charges each carried over 60 years behind bars.
Judge Bruce Schroeder, right, listens as the verdicts are read out in court.Credit:Kenosha News via AP
Kenosha County District Attorney Michael Graveley said his office respected the jury’s decision, and he asked the public to “accept the verdicts peacefully and not resort to violence”.
Ahead of the verdict, Democratic Governor Tony Evers announced that 500 National Guard members stood ready in case of trouble. Hours after the jury came back, there were no signs of any major protests or unrest in Kenosha.
Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, reacts as the verdicts are read out.Credit:AP
As he released the jurors, Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder assured them the court would take “every measure” to keep them safe.
Wisconsin Lt. Governor Mandela Barnes, who is black and a Democratic candidate for US Senate, denounced the outcome. He, like many civil rights activists, saw a racial double standard at work in the case.
“Over the last few weeks, many dreaded the outcome we just witnessed,” Barnes said. “The presumption of innocence until proven guilty is what we should expect from our judicial system, but that standard is not always applied equally. We have seen so many black and brown youth killed, only to be put on trial posthumously, while the innocence of Kyle Rittenhouse was virtually demanded by the judge.”
Political figures on the right welcomed the verdict and condemned the case brought against Rittenhouse.
Mark McCloskey, who got in trouble with the law when he and his wife waved a rifle and a handgun at Black Lives Matter protesters marching past their St Louis home in 2020, said it showed people had a right to defend themselves from a “mob”. He is now a Republican candidate for US Senate in Missouri.
Fifteen minutes after the verdict, the National Rifle Association tweeted the text of the Second Amendment.
The Kenosha case was part of an extraordinary confluence of trials that reflected the deep divide over race in the US. In Georgia, three white men are on trial in the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, while in Virginia, a trial is underway in a lawsuit over the deadly white-supremacist rally held in Charlottesville in 2017.
The bloodshed in Kenosha took place during months of sometimes-violent protests set off across the US by the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis and other cases involving police use of force against black people.
Rittenhouse went to Kenosha from his home in nearby Antioch, Illinois, after businesses were ransacked and burnt in the nights that followed Blake’s shooting. He joined other armed civilians on the streets, carrying a weapon authorities said was illegally purchased for him because he was underage.
Kyle Rittenhouse is comforted by his lawyer after he was cleared of all charges.Credit:AP
Bystander and drone video captured most of the frenzied chain of events that followed: Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, then shot to death protester Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded demonstrator Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28.
Then-president Donald Trump said it appeared Rittenhouse had been “very violently attacked.” Supporters donated more than $US2 million ($2.76 million) towards his legal defence.
Prosecutors portrayed Rittenhouse as a “wannabe soldier” who had gone looking for trouble that night and was responsible for creating a dangerous situation in the first place by pointing his rifle at demonstrators.
But Rittenhouse testified: “I didn’t do anything wrong. I defended myself.”
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Breaking into sobs at one point, he told the jury he opened fire after Rosenbaum chased him and made a grab for his gun. He said he was afraid his rifle was going to be wrested away and used to kill him.
Huber was then killed after hitting Rittenhouse in the head or neck with a skateboard, and Grosskreutz was shot after pointing a gun of his own at Rittenhouse.
After the verdict, Huber’s parents, Karen Bloom and John Huber, said the outcome “sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street.”
Rittenhouse’s mother, Wendy Rittenhouse, seated near her son on a courtroom bench, gasped in delight, cried and hugged others around her.
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Richards, the defence lawyer, said that Rittenhouse wants to be a nurse and that he is in counselling for post-traumatic stress disorder and will probably move away because “it’s too dangerous” for him to continue to live in the area.
Going in, many legal experts said they believed the defence had the advantage because of provisions favourable to Rittenhouse in Wisconsin self-defence law and video showing him being chased at key moments. Testimony from some of the prosecution’s own witnesses also seemed to buttress his claim of self-defence.
Witnesses described Rosenbaum as “hyperaggressive” and said that he dared others to shoot him and threatened to kill Rittenhouse earlier that night. A videographer testified Rosenbaum lunged for the rifle just before he was shot, and a pathologist said his injuries appeared to indicate his hand was over the barrel.
Also, Rosenbaum’s fiancee disclosed that he was on medication for bipolar disorder and depression. Rittenhouse’s lawyers branded Rosenbaum a “crazy person”.
Rittenhouse had also been charged with possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18, a misdemeanour that carries nine months behind bars and appeared likely to lead to a conviction.
But the judge threw out that charge before deliberations after the defence argued that the Wisconsin law did not apply to the long-barrelled rifle used by Rittenhouse.
AP
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