Why a jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 19 November 2021
⏱️ ? minutes
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Summary
Today a jury acquitted Kyle Rittenhouse on all counts in last summer’s shootings in Kenosha, Wis. We talk about the verdict, what it means and why this trial captivated the nation.
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After three and a half days of deliberation, jurors in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse have found the 18 year-old not guilty on all charges — including homicide and reckless endangerment.
Rittenhouse fatally shot two people and shot and wounded a third during a protest against police conduct in Kenosha, Wis., in August 2020. Rittenhouse, who is White and was 17 at the time of the shootings, said he was acting in self defense.
National reporter Mark Berman says the prosecution and defense presented dramatically different narratives of the shootings.
And Kim Bellware reports from outside the Kenosha courthouse, where a crowd is gathering in support of the family members of the people shot by Rittenhouse.Gun control groups and racial justice activists are calling the verdict a dangerous decision.
The parents of Anthony Huber, one of the people fatally shot by Rittenhouse, said in a statement they are “heartbroken and angry” over the verdict.
“We watched the trial closely, hoping it would bring us closure,” they said. “That did not happen.”
Follow The Washington Post’s live coverage of the Rittenhouse trial here.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today was Gamson versus Kyle Rittenhouse. As the first kind of the information Joseph |
| 0:09.8 | Roosevelt's a bomb, we the jury find a defendant Kyle H. Rittenhouse, not guilty. As to the |
| 0:16.4 | second kind of the information, Richard McGinnis, we the jury find a defendant Kyle H. Rittenhouse, |
| 0:22.5 | not guilty. On Friday afternoon, we got the verdict in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, |
| 0:29.5 | not guilty on all charges, not guilty of homicide or attempted homicide or reckless |
| 0:36.0 | endangerment. For weeks, the country has been watching this trial. Kyle Rittenhouse is the white |
| 0:41.6 | teenager who shot three people, killing two of them last summer in protests in Kenosha, |
| 0:46.3 | Wisconsin. National reporter Mark Berman is one of our colleagues who's been covering |
| 0:50.2 | the trial since it began. This was a bit of a surprise because this was not what people |
| 0:54.3 | have been expecting the last couple of days. The jury has been deliberating since first |
| 0:58.8 | thing Tuesday morning and legal experts say that the longer it went on, the more likely |
| 1:03.1 | it was that there were some sharp divisions in the jury room that they couldn't agree on |
| 1:06.7 | summer, all counts, and that it was likely we were going to see some form of a deadlock |
| 1:10.6 | or a split verdict. So that part is a surprise. |
| 1:14.8 | Today we're talking about why the jury found Kyle Rittenhouse not guilty and what this |
| 1:19.7 | verdict means for the country. From the newsroom of the Washington Post, this is Post |
| 1:24.3 | Reports. I'm Martin Powers. It's Friday, November 19th. |
| 1:41.1 | When the verdict came in just after noon in Kenosha, the reaction was emotional but |
| 1:48.6 | somewhat subdued outside of the courthouse. |
| 1:51.9 | Her Kim Belware has been outside the courthouse in Kenosha, talking to people and protesters |
| 1:57.1 | as they heard the verdict come in. |
| 1:58.9 | It's not right, it's not right. It's not right. It's not right. It's not right. It's not right. |
... |
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