45 Minutes Into Deliberations Jury Asks For Copies Of Jury Instructions Particularly Related To Self Defense
The jurors in the Kyle Rittenhouse case reached out to the judge after forty-five minutes to ask for jury instructions particularly related to self-defense according to a new report. While it is impossible to know what a jury is thinking, most believe in a case like this a quick verdict would be in favor of the defense.
According to Fox News, “The 18-person jury is made up of 10 women and eight men, including one male person of color; the 12 jurors selected to decide on the final verdict include seven men and five women, including the male person of color.
“Forty-five minutes into deliberations the jury asked for 11 copies of jury instructions, particularly pages 1-6 pertaining to self-defense.”
Judge Schroeder also told the jury to “disregard the claims or opinions of any other person or news media or social networking site” while they deliberated.
Schroeder continued: “You will pay no heed to the opinions of anyone, even the president of the United States, or the president before him.”
Last year Biden tweeted a video that included an image of Rittenhouse carrying an AR-15 style rifle with the caption: “There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night.”
Kyle Rittenhouse’s mother Wendy accused Biden of defaming Kyle on Fox News last week. Wendy Rittenhouse said:
“When I saw that I was shocked, I was angry. President Biden don’t know my son whatsoever, and he’s not a White supremacist. He’s not a racist. And Biden did that for the votes. And I was so angry for a while at him and what he did to my son, he defamed him.
The judge did allow one uncommon thing to happen in court today. From ABC:
Kyle Rittenhouse played a direct role Tuesday in deciding, albeit randomly, who will be the final 12 jurors that will decide his innocence or guilt in the murder trial over his killing two protesters and injuring a third last summer.
At the direction of Circuit Judge Bruce Schroder, Rittenhouse’s attorney placed slips of paper into a raffle drum with the numbers of each of the 18 jurors on it who sat through the two-week trial. The drum had been sitting on a window ledge throughout the trial but was placed in front of Rittenhouse at the defense table Tuesday.
Rittenhouse, with the jury watching, then selected six pieces of paper from the drum, who a court official then read aloud to be dismissed: 11, 58, 14, 45, 9 and 52.
The jurors won’t be among the final 12 who were deliberating the case. But they were required to remain in the courthouse, at the request of the defense, until the jury returned with a verdict.
Kyle Rittenhouse, in an unusual move, was allowed by the judge to draw the slips of paper that determined who would decide his fate and who would be dismissed as alternates.
— Chicago Sun-Times (@Suntimes) November 16, 2021
That task is usually done by a courtroom clerk, not the defendant. https://t.co/ECBZf47pTe
There’s no other way to put it: the President of the United States refused to disavow white supremacists on the debate stage last night. pic.twitter.com/Q3VZTW1vUV
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 30, 2020