James Kraus, one of the prosecutors in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, informed the jury in a Kenosha, Wisconsin court Monday that the offender must have let himself be assaulted last August due to the fact that “everybody takes a pounding in some cases.”
Kraus was delivering the rebuttal argument, after fellow district attorney Thomas Binger offered the very first closing argument, and defense lawyer Mike Richards reacted on behalf of Rittenhouse. The prosecution tried throughout the day to argue that Rittenhouse did not have the “privilege” of self-defense, although he only shot people who had actually pursued and assaulted him, because he had provoked the attack by bringing his rifle to the Black Lives Matter riot near midnight on August 25, 2020.
Appropriately, Kraus argued, Rittenhouse had a task to pull away– not prior to shooting his weapon, however prior to resisting in any physical method. And he included that Rittenhouse needs to have enabled himself to be beaten by members of a mob that both he and Binger had explained as “heroes,” concerned people acting to stop what they saw as an “active shooter” on the street.
“Mr. Richards misstated the standard [for self-defense],” Kraus argued. “It is not ‘might have triggered’ great physical harm or death. It is not ‘most likely’ to have actually triggered terrific bodily damage or death. It is ‘imminent risk’ of death or excellent physical harm.
“Where is that, when you get a couple scrapes? Everybody takes a beating sometimes, right? In some cases you get in a scuffle, and perhaps you do get harm a little bit. That does not suggest you get to begin plugging individuals with your full metal coat AR-15 rounds.”
Kraus also argued that Rittenhouse was “too afraid” to fight his way out of the crowd by utilizing his bare fists.
Previously, defense attorney Richards adamantly declared that his customer did not have a legal task to be beaten by a mob:
Law & Crime Network/ YouTube
The jury will now ponder on the 5 counts dealing with Rittenhouse– two of murder, two of careless endangerment, and among attempted murder. A 6th charge, on illegal ownership of a weapon by a minor, was dropped previously Monday.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday nights from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His current book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative viewpoint. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.