Prosecutorial misconduct led the defense attorneys for Kyle Rittenhouse to call on the judge to declare a mistrial in what the judge called the prosecution’s “day of reckoning.”
The move is the third such request for a mistrial that defense attorneys have asked for on behalf of the 18-year-old, who could go to prison for the rest of his life for the killings of two men and the wounding of a third during the third night of riots in Kenosha, Wisc., on Aug. 25, 2020.
The judge has, over the two-week-long trial, said that prosecutors acted in bad faith multiple times and “may have stepped” over the line several times on evidence and constitutional missteps. At the last minute, the prosecutors let a video recording into evidence, but they lied about its provenance, lied about its resolution, and then, in a coup de grace, lied about its length.
That the case hasn’t been declared a mistrial up to this point is a wonder. At every turn, Judge Bruce Schroeder decided that jurors should see more information, which is why defense objections of the surprise video went unsustained.
Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi asked for the mistrial without prejudice before the jury comes back with a decision, which means he could be retried, but they also have another request with prejudice, which would foreclose any further adjudication.
BREAKING: Rittenhouse Defense Moves for Mistrial on 'Hocus Pocus Out of Focus' Video – PJ Media
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'Queasy' Judge Schroeder Calls for Special Hearing on 'Hocus Pocus, Out of Focus' Drone Footage
Judge Schroeder looks like he needs a shot of Pepto—quick. The Rittenhouse trial is spiraling out of control after the prosecution snuck some last-minute “evidence” onto the record that they claim is high-quality drone footage while only providing the defense with a lower-quality compressed version. The defense entered a motion for mistrial based on the discrepancy that provided them with different evidence than the prosecution had. You can read the details on that here.Now that the jury is requesting access to this footage during deliberation, the lawyers are in a tizzy because the motion for mistrial is attached to the very footage the jury wants to pore over. The judge appears to be very hesitant to declare a mistrial even though he’s had several opportunities to because of the prosecutorial misconduct by DA Thomas Binger that has continuously been a problem in this trial.
Judge Schroeder has yelled at Binger multiple times for his constitutional violations of Fifth Amendment protections and other egregious prejudicial conduct. What Schroeder should do is declare a mistrial based on the multitude of prosecutorial screw-ups that have happened, especially this new video caper (or #compressiongate) mess. Instead, Schroeder decided that there will be a special hearing calling expert technical witnesses and testimony under oath. For real.
Now the prosecution is going to have to testify on the record and under oath how the drone footage file magically changed file names and compressed itself into a blurry rendition of itself for the defense but remained in perfect pixelation for the prosecution.
While declaring that there would be a new hearing on this issue, Judge Schroeder said he felt “queasy.” Us too, your honor. Us too.
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