It’s said that great lawyers know the law and smart lawyers know the judge. That’s been made pretty plain when looking at the actions of Judge Bruce Schroeder in the Kyle Rittenhouse homocide trial. He’s demonstrated bias in Rittenhouse’s favor from the beginning and apparently he doesn’t care who thinks so. He blew peoples’ minds when applauding an expert witness about to take the stand because it was Veteran’s Day, but that’s nothing compared to today’s exploit of letting Rittenhouse choose which jurors are the 12 who will decide the case and which the alternates. Another courthouse first. Associated Press:

(AP) — Kyle Rittenhouse played a direct role Tuesday in deciding, albeit randomly, who will be the final 12 jurors that will decide his innocence or guilt in the murder trial over his killing two protesters and injuring a third last summer.

At the direction of Circuit Judge Bruce Schroder, Rittenhouse’s attorney placed slips of paper into a raffle drum with the numbers of each of the 18 jurors on it who sat through the two-week trial. The drum had been sitting on a window ledge throughout the trial but was placed in front of Rittenhouse at the defense table Tuesday.

Rittenhouse, with the jury watching, then selected six pieces of paper from the drum, who a court official then read aloud to be dismissed: 11, 58, 14, 45, 9 and 52. […]

Portage County Assistant District Attorney Robert Jambois was a prosecutor in Kenosha in 2008 when he tried Mark Jensen for homicide in front of Schroeder. Jensen was accused of poisoning and smothering his wife in one of the highest-profile cases to land in Schroeder’s courtroom before Rittenhouse.

Jambois said alternates were designated by picking numbers from a tumbler but the clerk of courts pulled the numbers from it, not Jensen.

“I’ve never heard of a defendant pulling the names,” Jambois said. “That’s done by a member of the court.”

Julius Kim, a former Milwaukee County assistant district attorney, said he’s never seen a judge allow a defendant to draw the numbers to determine who the final members of a jury will be.

This is just part of the ongoing freak show that Schroeder has made out of his courtroom.

That’s pretty much how the shot is being called.

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7 COMMENTS

  1. Apparently the drawing of jurors’ numbers is usual in Wisconsin, but it’s usually done (per law) by a member of the court, i.e. the judge or clerk.

  2. Nothing like a white supremacist overseeing another one who killed two unarmed citizens & permanently disabled another. Hey white people. Still think there’s justice in America? If so, ur a goddamn liar & a fool.

    • Why is he a white supremacist? Because you and the press say he is? I thought the facts of the trial also stated one had a gun, one a knife, and one a skateboard. I think your facts may be off.

      • Well, if a person wants to hang out with such groups and has a social media history supportive of them and their attitudes I’d say that qualifies. The defense claimed that Rittenhouse “golly gee your honor had NO idea Proud Boys, that militia group he wanted to be part of and things like that “ok” sign have anything at all to do with white power. Sure. Yank on my other leg – it’s got bells on it but don’t go pissing all over the truth and claim it’s raining. But getting to some checkable facts (not that I think you’d bother – truth would burn you like sunlight would burn a vampire. If you paid attention to the trial you’d know the prosecution wanted to present such evidence but the judge excluded it saying it didn’t relate closely enough to the conditions of the evening Rittenhouse showed up at the protests, or his actions. Basically, the judge extended the protections (an extremely high bar of virtually having done the same thing in the past) to Rittenhouse for his actions as would be extended to a govt. employee and in particular law enforcement under the doctrine of Qualified Immunity. Rittenhouse hadn’t actually done the same thing in the same set of circumstance and been at least investigated officially so under qualified immunity PLUS the standard cop “I feared for my life” claim the judge made damn sure the jury couldn’t hear about/consider highly relevant information regarding his mindset. That in turn limited the impact of the prosecutor’s (not that people don’t have reason to question his own actions – with such a high bar to clear even with an even-handed judge it wouldn’t take much to sabotage his own case. And keep LE from making life difficult for him and his family and there’s NO question they were in “poor little KKKyle’s corner) point that creating the situation in the first place negates his ability to claim self-defense. It’s the old saw about a kid killing his own parents and then begging for and getting mercy from the court because he’s an orphan.

        But your statement is false on its face. Rosenbaum was not armed. No gun or even knife. If you consider a clear plastic bag filled with hygiene supplies a weapon you are a one giant fucking snowflake. Not to mention he was something like 5’4” and even Rittenhouse admitted on the stand he never saw him with a weapon. After the first shot Rittenhouse kept on shooting. He also said his second murdered victim had no weapon. (No knife or gun) Someone tried to catch KKKyle as he ran away, a guy who got around on his skateboard. When Rittenhouse, that “tough guy hero” who’d fallen down in panic after (no doubt) realizing “Oh shit – I just murdered a guy in front of a bunch of witnesses!” realized KKKyle was trying to point that AR-15 at him he used the only thing he had (his skateboard) to defend HIMSELF! And not well enough because KKKyle was able to shoot and murder him too. Oh, and KKKyle admitted on the stand the guy had no gun or knife.

        As for the third guy, he eventually drew his pistol which HE was legally allowed to be carrying, and tried to reason for a bit to de-escalate things. His hands, including the one with the gun were up over his head. It was only for a brief instant as the guy attempted to lower his hands to his sides that it was perhaps pointed enough at KKKyle to give him the excuse he wanted.

        Now, you might accurately point out that all three VICTIMS were white so how could little KKKyle possibly be racist? Knock off the bullshit. I grew up repeatedly (and have heard too often in adulthood and distressingly more frequently in recent years) two words – the n-word and n-word lover. To a racist fuckwad (which KKKyle Rittenhouse is) anyone protesting the Jacob Blake shooting (in the back!) by KKKenosha police were either n-words or n-word lovers. The latter deserve no better treatment than the first in the eyes of white supremacists. Hell, sometimes they put special effort into teaching “race traitors” a “lesson.”

        I doubt you’ve read this far, but I’m pretty sure that no matter how many facts get put in front of you including actual testimony from your new “hero” that you’ll just ignore them and make up new bullshit.

    • Please find a source and post it. When I read about this matter attorneys from around the country were astonished, as were Wisconsin attorneys willing to go on the record. Of course, lawyers who practice in front of a given judge are hesitant to make critical comments to the media (especially regarding a high profile judge/case) for obvious reasons. But the overall impression the coverage I’ve found on this was a kind of “Wow – he actually did that?” type and as I said it includes attorneys from that state who know about how things are done in Kenosha.

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