Kyle Rittenhouse’s defense team sought a mistrial on Wednesday, its second such request. The judge has yet to rule on either.
Jurors in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial deliberated through a second full day on Wednesday, an indication that they might be struggling with the complexities of their task to consider Mr. Rittenhouse’s culpability in the five criminal counts he faces. Mr. Rittenhouse,18, is on trial for first-degree intentional homicide and other charges after fatally shooting two men and maiming another during civil unrest in Kenosha, Wis., in August 2020. The deliberations on Wednesday were punctuated by a second call for a mistrial by Mr. Rittenhouse’s lawyers, who argued that prosecutors had before the trial provided them with a lower-quality version of a drone video that depicts the fatal shooting of Joseph Rosenbaum, the first man Mr. Rittenhouse shot. During two weeks of testimony, jurors saw the higher-quality version of the video. Judge Bruce Schroeder said the trial would continue but suggested that he could rule on the request for a mistrial at any time, including after a verdict. “It has to be addressed if there is a guilty verdict on any degree on that count,” Judge Schroeder said of the motion. The jurors — seven women and five men — offered a few glimpses into how their deliberations, which started on Tuesday morning, were proceeding. At points during their deliberations, jurors asked the judge for permission to watch videos that had been played during the trial, including footage of all three shootings from the night in question.
