In a two-week trial that reignited debate over self-defense laws across the nation, a Wisconsin jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse for shooting three people, two fatally, during a racial justice protest in Kenosha.
The Wisconsin jury believed Rittenhouse's claims that he feared for his life and acted in self-defense after he drove about 20 miles from his home in Antioch, Illinois — picking up an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle in Kenosha — in what he claimed was an effort to protect property during violent protests.
The lakeside city of 100,000 was the scene of chaotic demonstrations after a white police officer shot Jacob Blake, an unarmed, 29-year-old black man, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.
In delivering its verdict, a Wisconsin jury decided that Rittenhouse's conduct was justified, even though the prosecution argued that he provoked the violent encounter and, therefore, should not be able to find refuge in the self-defense doctrine.
As prosecutor Th...
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