All of his shootings were legally self defense, and based on the evidence presented at trial the jury absolutely decided his case correctly. Grosskreutz will have a hard fight in his civil suit against Rittenhouse after admitting on the stand that he pointed his gun at Rittenhouse before Rittenhouse shot him. He might actually have an easier time against the city, county and police for not having sufficient police response to the previous shots fired.
Rittenhouse was also a complete and total idiot for being there in the first place, even more so for separating from his group, and he hasn’t demonstrated substantially better judgement any time since. Because he’s immensely, painfully stupid.
The only thing I don’t really get is why everyone seems so damned intent about spending time, attention and effort talking about him in the first place, regardless of what political side you’re on. I mean it’s weird they treated him like some kind of aspirational figure, it’s even more weird that they’re now accusing him of being trans as though that changes the value of anything he’s said before or since. But we really, really don’t need to give him any more of a spotlight than he already has.
All of his shootings were legally self defense
Not quite… The jury’s decision simply indicated that the prosecution did not meet their burden of proof, not that the defense’s position was accepted as fact. This is an important distinction.
… at trial the jury absolutely decided his case correctly.
Agreed, but keep in mind he was found to be not guilty, which is not the same thing as innocent.
Because he’s immensely, painfully stupid.
Immensely, painfully, and dangerously stupid.
But we really, really don’t need to give him any more of a spotlight than he already has.
Fair enough, but I think that this case should be taught in law school as an example of prosecutorial negligence in that if he were simply charged appropriately, 2nd degree non premeditated and/or manslaughter, he would be in prison now for a minimum of 15 years but probably closer to 25 years.
The choice to only charge 1st degree, which took on the burden of proving premeditation, was the biggest legal blunder of our time… worse than Alex Jones’s lawyer sending the full cell phone copy to the prosecutor, which was an absolute joy to watch live as it happened.
Fair enough, but I think that this case should be taught in law school as an example of prosecutorial negligence in that if he were simply charged appropriately, 2nd degree non premeditated and/or manslaughter, he would be in prison now for a minimum of 15 years but probably closer to 25 years.
The choice to only charge 1st degree, which took on the burden of proving premeditation, was the biggest legal blunder of our time… worse than Alex Jones’s lawyer sending the full cell phone copy to the prosecutor, which was an absolute joy to watch live as it happened.
You think? His defense was a pretty standard self defense argument. Or does having shown up to the general area at all remove his ability to claim self defense under those charges?
His defense was irrelevant because by only charging 1st degree, and not including the lesser charges, the prosecution took on the burden of proving premeditation, which was not possible to prove in this case.
Even if they were able to admit the evidence that KR had talked about his desire to kill protesters only weeks earlier, the prosecution would still have had trouble proving premeditation beyond a reasonable doubt given this heresy evidence alone.
He was found not guilty because the premeditation was not established beyond a reasonable doubt.
The self defense argument only would have been relevant if he had been charged with 2nd degree murder, reckless homicide, or manslaughter.
In the case of reckless homicide, his self defense argument would have failed due to the fact that a reasonable person would have known that bringing a loaded rifle into the middle of an unpredictable and potentially volatile situation would have the potential of resulting in death.
His unjustified and inappropriate presence that night instigated the conflict, and but for the fact that he was incorrectly charged, he would be in jail now.
Keep in mind that the verdict only establishes that the prosecution did not meet their burden of proof, not that the jury believed the self defense story.
