We gaan naar de slotpleidooien vandaag.
Ook in de kwaliteitspers stelt men een aantal serieuze discrepanties in dit proces, en veel bijzonder vreemde uitspraken vanwege zowel de rechter als het openbaar ministerie.
Citaat:
Schroeder’s move Friday to include the jury instruction about provocation is a boost for prosecutors in a case in which many of the judge’s rulings have been in the defense’s favor. Legal experts said Rittenhouse’s self-defense claim could be diminished if jurors agree that evidence shows he was the aggressor against Rosenbaum.
“The existence of a provocation during an instruction is really going to lead the prosecution to hit that narrative hard,” said Tom Grieve, a Milwaukee-based criminal defense attorney who has been following the trial. Provocation instructions give prosecutors a way to disrupt the defense’s assertion that Rittenhouse had a reasonable fear that Rosenbaum would seriously hurt or kill him.
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Citaat:
Considering lesser charges gives jurors more paths to convict, Grieve said. But the wider array of options also means jurors could land on a softer middle ground.
“You’re giving a buffet of options,” Grieve said. “Maybe the jury can’t agree on all things but they compromise on something lower.”
In court on Friday, Schroeder briefed Rittenhouse on the risks and benefits.
“By having a lesser offense included, you’re raising the risk of conviction,” Schroeder explained. “And you’re also decreasing the risk that you’ll end up with a second trial because the jury is unable to agree.”
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Citaat:
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As the highly divisive trial heads toward a verdict, scrutiny of Schroeder for his decisions from the bench has taken much of the focus away from Rittenhouse. Critics flagged Schroeder’s pretrial ruling on who can be called a “victim” and for making a joke about Asian food in court on Thursday. The 75-year-old judge’s lack of technical savvy has drawn particular notice.
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Citaat:
Schroeder has suggested in court that he is a “dinosaur” when it comes to technology, a point Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney James Kraus raised during an argument with the defense over how the state was presenting video evidence.
Kraus implied that the defense was making disingenuous arguments about how zooming in and otherwise enlarging images on screens can lead to distortion that makes them unreliable. The defense cited a forensic imaging specialist from the state crime lab, who testified that image software adds pixels to a picture when it’s enlarged, leading to deviations from the original.
“All due respect to your honor, I think the defense is trying to take advantage of your lack of knowledge about technology, which you’ve expressed,” Kraus said as the debate continued Thursday.
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/natio...-instructions/