Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial has entered its third week and jurors are preparing for closing arguments and instructions from Judge Bruce Schroeder. Schroeder began proceedings on Monday by claiming he was worried that he would bore jurors with reading the self-defense instruction for each count it applies to despite the fact that it’s a necessary component of instructing the jury.

The instructions, which are 36 pages long, have already changed as Schroeder grilled the prosecution over the six counts Rittenhouse faced. The sixth count—possession of a dangerous weapon by a person under 18—was thrown out over Schroeder’s criticisms of the Wisconsin law. Schroeder claimed it was poorly written and that the size of the barrel of the gun Rittenhouse possessed meant that he did not violate the law despite being in possession of the gun when he was 17. The count is considered a misdemeanor and carries a sentence of up to nine months in prison and a $10,000 fine.

Rittenhouse is accused of shooting three men with a Smith & Wesson AR-15 style .223 while allegedly protecting a car lot in Kenosha, Wisconsin, as protests unfolded over the police shooting of Jacob Blake last August. Rittenhouse killed Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber and injured Gaige Grosskreutz.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  5:06:17 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Prosecutor Thomas Binger sparred with Judge Schroeder over jury instructions involving the consideration of lesser charges. Schroeder on Friday said the jury was allowed to consider two lesser charges as it relates to the count of first-degree intentional homicide in Huber’s death. Allowing lesser charges to be considered opens up other avenues for a jury to convict Rittenhouse, though the judge continues to show his bias in Rittenhouse’s favor.

At one point, Schroeder said that if the jury found Rittenhouse was “acting lawfully in self-defense, the ball game’s over,” leading to additional confusion. Binger consistently requested that Schroeder clarify some of his remarks as well as define legal terms the jury may not be familiar with.

Little headway was made before the discussion turned to taking a lunch break. Schroeder, who made racist comments about a meal ordered for the courtroom in the past, explicitly said he wouldn’t comment on today’s meal.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  5:24:31 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Closing arguments have begun in the Rittenhouse trial. Binger is laying out point-by-point slides about the teen’s actions and stressed that “life is more important than property”—something the jury unanimously agreed on earlier in the trial.

Binger said he will first focus on “the murders that the defendant committed,” before laying out what he feels is irrelevant to the case. He will then relate his closing arguments to the jury instructions presented.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  5:53:46 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Binger is making an, ahem, interesting case against Rittenhouse shooting and killing Rosenbaum, who was unarmed. The prosecutor tried to appeal to any jurors who may have been in a bar fight and inexplicably showed an image from the movie “Roadhouse.”

Meainwhile, Schroeder once again seems eager to break for lunch.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  6:17:50 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Binger’s attempt to highlight the fact that Wisconsin law does not permit anyone to claim self-defense if that person uses more force than necessary leads to an inevitable lunch break. Proceedings will continue at around 12:45pm local time.

  
  
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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  7:01:22 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Proceedings have resumed and, with that, yet another comment about lunch. “I hope your full stomachs won’t distract you too much from the presentation here,” Binger says as he continues his closing argument.

Cameras stay focused on Rittenhouse as Binger plays footage of Good Samaritans trying to save Rosenbaum’s life. The defendant mostly keeps his head down over the course of the video. Once the video ends, Binger once again highlights Rittenhouse’s false claim that he was a medic. The next video shows Rittenhouse fleeing the scene and claiming Rosenbaum pulled a gun, which Binger maintains simply isn’t true.

“The defendant is lying to save his own skin instead of trying to go and help the person he just shot and killed,” Binger says.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  7:24:36 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Binger begins going into detail about the interaction between Rittenhouse and Grosskreutz, who attempted to disarm the defendant and was shot in the arm, severing his bicep. Also during that incident, Huber was shot and killed by Rittenhouse. Binger stresses that Rittenhouse was seemingly only thinking of himself in those moments.

He describes Rittenhouse as an active shooter who needed to be disarmed and says folks like Grosskreutz and Huber who were trying to do so approached Rittenhouse in the least aggressive way possible. “That crowd was full of heroes,” Binger says.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  7:33:17 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was asked about the ongoing Rittenhouse trial and the president’s past remarks insinuating that Rittenhouse is a white supremacist. Last year during his candidacy, Joe Biden <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1311268302950260737">tweeted critically</a> about then-president Donald Trump’s refusal to disavow white supremacists. The tweet included an image of Rittenhouse holding an AR-15.

Rittenhouse’s mom claimed that Biden “defamed” her son—something Psaki refused to speak on. Instead of addressing the ongoing trial, she reaffirmed Biden’s criticism of cases like this and said that “we shouldn’t have, broadly speaking, vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons.”

“There’s an ongoing trial. We’re awaiting a verdict. Beyond that, I’m not going to speak to any individuals or this case,” Psaki said.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  8:11:37 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Binger gets to a good stopping point after detailing how it is clear that Rittenhouse killed two people and injured another but that the case hinges on whether his alleged use of force was justified as self-defense. At just over two hours, it seems as if prosecutors have concluded their closing arguments. Judge Schroeder calls for a quick break and says proceedings will resume at around 2:25pm local time.

  
  
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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  8:37:15 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    As folks file back into the courtroom, there’s a bit of chatter on the exact length of the prosecution’s closing arguments. Being that it doesn’t really approach the time limit, the conversation wraps up quickly and proceedings resume with the defense’s closing arguments.

Rittenhouse’s attorney, Mark Richards, scolds Binger for allegedly lying and even insinuates that the prosecution is unprepared. Richards appears gleeful to use words like “rioter” and plays to the judge’s fears of technology by invoking the dreaded “magic pixel camera.” His layout of his closing argument is less straightforward than Binger’s three-point strategy. Richards instead chooses to go count-by-count, starting with first-degree reckless homicide for the fatal shooting of Rosenbaum.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  8:49:55 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Richards gets to count two, which is first-degree recklessly endangering safety in the case of Daily Caller video editor Richie McGinniss, who was filming Rosenbaum when Rittenhouse fatally shot him. Richards repeatedly refers to McGinniss as a “citizen journalist” and claims McGinniss helped the defense more than hurt their case.

Before I forget, count one carries a sentence of up to 60 years in prison, while count two carries a sentence of up to 12 ½ years in prison along with a $25,000 fine. Count three, which Richards zeroes in on next, carries a life sentence.

That count is first-degree intentional homicide for the fatal shooting of Anthony Huber, whom Richards classifies as a “rioter.” He does his best to demonize Huber’s actions as well as slam Rosenbaum’s mental health.

In an effort to defend his client, Richards erroneously defines an “active shooter” as someone with a “plan” to kill multiple people and claims Rittenhouse was not intending to murder the multiple victims that he did shoot last August. The FBI definition of an active shooter does not include prior planning or intent and instead considers an active shooter an “individual actively engaged in killing or attempting to kill people in a populated area.”

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  8:58:41 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Richards gets to count five, which is attempted first-degree intentional homicide for the shooting of Grosskreutz, who was injured but survived. The charge carries a sentence of up to 60 years in prison. He somewhat breezes past count four, which is first-degree recklessly endangering safety for an unnamed person.

It’s clear that Richards takes offense to Rittenhouse being classified as an active shooter. He pushes back against the description, calls Rittenhouse a kid who was just trying to help and was asked to help the community and labels protesters as a “mob.” He then shifts gears and begins going witness-by-witness hand-picking quotes that may make Rittenhouse look good, such as Dominick Black’s remarks claiming Rittenhouse was the only person trying to help.

Black is facing charges for allegedly purchasing the gun Rittenhouse used in Kenosha.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  9:21:35 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Richards doubles down on the claim that Rittenhouse was explicitly asked along with his cohorts to provide security to Car Source in Kenosha. Sahil “Sal” Khindri and Anmol “Sam” Khindri, the two brothers whose father owns the car lot, said under oath earlier in the trial that they never asked anyone for armed protection.

A former employee begged to differ, though it’s hard to believe a legitimate business owner would call on a teenager who doesn’t even live in the state to defend their property.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 ·  9:33:39 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    The defense once again calls an image enlarged by James Armstrong “hocus pocus” and rhymes the phrase with “out of focus” in what is perhaps the worst display of lyricism in the courtroom so far. Richards uses that as a jumping off point to praise forensic pathologist Dr. Doug Kelley, who he calls his “favorite witness.”

Kelley’s assessment last week of Rosenbaum’s autopsy indicates Rittenhouse shot Rosenbaum at close range within a few feet. Richards claims that Kelley’s finding shows that Rosenbaum was lunging towards Rittenhouse and somehow presented a threat.

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            Monday, Nov 15, 2021 · 10:05:29 PM +00:00

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      April Siese
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    Richards is extremely fixated on Rosenbaum’s conduct and eager to call the victim, who was killed by Rittenhouse, “crazy.” Unlike Binger, Richards calls this a “political” case, though he says the labels of Democrat and Republican can be removed from the conversation.

He seems to be wrapping up and playing his greatest hits, so to speak. Richards takes more digs at the demonstrators he’s already labeled a “mob,” references the “hocus pocus out of focus” image used during the trial, and shows pictures that paint Rittenhouse in a sympathetic light, including a photo of Rittenhouse cleaning up graffiti.

Monday, Nov 15, 2021 · 4:18:19 PM +00:00 · April Siese

Pixels have come back to haunt Schroeder as he lectured the prosecution about enlarging images.

Schroeder admitted that he didn’t “want to be meddling and comment on the evidence” but claimed that he had “common sense” enough to be skeptical of zooming in on a photo, which he continues to maintain somehow adds in pixels that alter the original image. This is absolutely not the case, yet Schroeder evoked the Daubert standard, which allows a party to raise a motion to exclude expert testimony or evidence deemed inadmissible.

He continued lecturing the prosecution that if his baseless theory somehow was borne out, it would bode terribly for them.