Rittenhouse Trial

[Jedi Guy]

3. Everyone flips out when he sides with the defense on something.

But no one notices when he sides with the prosecution. For instance, the prosecution requested that, in his instructions to the jury, the judge offer the option to convict on lesser charges than what Rittenhouse was originally charged with. This reduces the likelihood of a second trial but increases the likelihood of conviction. If he were in the bag for the defense, would it make any sense for him to do so? No, of course not.

Furthermore, the prosecution asked that the jury be presented with instructions for provocation, which undermines the self-defense claim being made by the defense. After a lot of back-and-forth, he decided to submit instructions for provocation. Once again, if he were trying to slant things in favor of the defense, why would he do that? The common sense answer is, of course, that he wouldn't.

The much ballyhooed "pinch and zoom" thing was also a nothingburger. The prosecution wanted to present the images, the defense objected. The judge admitted he's not familiar with the technology behind the process and asked the prosecution to provide an expert. The very next day, after more discussion, the images were allowed into evidence. So once again, if he were trying to help the defense, why would he do that? Yet again, the common sense answer is that he wouldn't.

The fact is that in any trial, the judge is sometimes going to support a prosecutor's request and sometimes they're going to support the defense's request. People getting butt-hurt over the latter is ridiculous, especially without bothering to actually investigate the matter and read more than a headline or a tweet.

If Rittenhouse walks, it will be because the prosecution presented a weak case and Wisconsin's self-defense law is written in such a way that the prosecution must prove that Rittenhouse went there with the specific intent to kill people. Proving intent beyond a reasonable doubt is difficult without some kind of "smoking gun" evidence.