Kyle Rittenhouse's Defense Attorneys Accuse Prosecutors Of Withholding Key Video, Demand A Mistrial As Jury Continues Deliberations
Nov. 17 2021, Published 12:10 p.m. ET
Kyle Rittenhouse's defense attorneys have accused prosecutors of withholding a key video and are demanding that the judge throw out the case entirely.
The legal team behind the embattled teenager – who is on trial in Wisconsin for a deadly triple shooting at last year's Kenosha Protests – say prosecutors purposefully did not provide them the high-resolution drone footage of what transpired before the first shooting, which they believe would have proven that Kyle was not the aggressor but rather acted in self-defense.
According to the seven-page motion for a mistrial with prejudice, which was filed Monday ahead of closing arguments and obtained by The Chicago Tribune, prosecutors instead gave the defense a difficult-to-see, low-resolution version of the footage in a 3.6MB file, which Rittenhouse's lawyers claim is less than a third of the high-resolution file prosecutors had.
The motion states the defense only got the better-quality clip, which had already been used by prosecutors, on Saturday after testimony had concluded.
"The video footage has been at the center of this case," states the motion, calling it the "linchpin in their case."
"The failure to provide the same quality footage in this particular case is intentional and clearly prejudices the defendant," the motion insists.
In the filing, Kyle's lawyers also included some of the prosecutors' perceived missteps that controversial Judge Bruce Schroeder had already admonished them for, including mentioning evidence they'd been told not to mention and bringing up the now-18-year-old's silence following his arrest.
They claimed the missteps were "clearly intentional" and suggested prosecutors tried to score a retrial in order to "get another 'kick at the cat' because the first trial is going so badly."
"The testimony in this case up to that point had not gone very well for the prosecution," the motion states, citing witnesses who corroborated the claim that Rittenhouse was under attack when he opened fire.
The defense argued that any conviction determined should be overruled, Rittenhouse should be cleared of the five felonies he faces and any chance of a retrial should be forbidden.
The motion to dismiss has yet to be formally addressed in court.
The jury of five men and seven women began deliberations Monday, deliberated for a whole day on Tuesday and resumed discussions again Wednesday morning.
Rittenhouse faces life in prison if he's found guilty of using an AR-style semiautomatic rifle to kill both Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber, as well as wound Gaige Grosskreutz, during a Black Lives Matter rally that stemmed from the police shooting of Jacob Blake.
Blake, a then-29-year-old Black man, was left partially paralyzed after a white cop shot him in the back seven times in front of three of his children.
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