“This case is not a game,” defense lawyer Mark Richards told jurors in a courtroom in Kenosha County, Wisconsin, during closing arguments on Monday. “It is my client’s life.”
Richards’s client Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, is on trial for killing two men and injuring a third amid spiraling protests after a police officer shot Jacob Blake in Kenosha. There’s no dispute that Rittenhouse shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, ran away, then killed Anthony Huber, 26, and injured Gaige Grosskreutz, 27. The question before jurors is whether this constituted self-defense under the circumstances, as the defense maintains, or if Rittenhouse committed murder and attempted murder, as prosecutors allege. Kenosha County’s
Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger argued earlier on Monday that Rittenhouse provoked the initial fatal confrontation with Rosenbaum, lied to bystanders during the aftermath, acted callously by not trying to care for the dying Rosenbaum, and did not try to show bystanders he was not dangerous.
