Video Transcript

This is nbc 10 news we continue to follow breaking news in the trial that has gained national attention this afternoon a jury in kenosha wisconsin found kyle rittenhouse not guilty on all counts in the shooting that killed two men and wounded a third joining us now is nbc legal analyst enrique l1 latoison enrique thanks for being here were you surprised at the outcome of that case i was not so i’ve been following this case very carefully in this case is a lightning rod whatever side you were on before the verdict you’re still on that side and probably even more deeper this case you know when you look at the prosecution the way the case started out and the witnesses started testifying for the prosecution they were more helpful to the defense and then when you look at the jury instruction for self-defense in wisconsin and you looked at the fact that mr rittenhouse actually testified in this case it goes by what was the defendant thinking not what was the the thinking of the people that were going after him or maybe people trying to stop a shooter in this case so it actually goes by what mr rittenhouse was thinking at the time and when you look at that and the way the jury instructors work for self-defense in wisconsin and him testifying along with the prosecution’s witnesses and their legal theory actually kind of more benefiting the defense um you know this verdict was not a surprise the judge today enrique i know told the jurors after their verdict that this show the system works and there’s been a big focus on the behavior of the judge himself how much do you think that impacted the outcome today if at all well the jury in this case was not sequestered so if they were following the instructions they weren’t looking at the news or looking at social media or 6 reading things a lot of the things that the judge was doing that got a lot of fire for they would not know about because a lot of the things that were being said by the judge were not in the presence of the jury so there were a lot of you know there was a lot of controversy i would say of things the judge was saying the comments the judge was making the things the judge was doing but that was not in the presence of the jury so dory would only have known this if they had not followed the sequestration rules and had been kind of doing their research on the end in the end of you know the defense actually said in the news conference that this judge has known to give it a fair trial but a very harsh person to be sentenced by so in the end i think only 6 the jury would know whether they were swayed by the things the judge was doing you were talking about the idea of the concept of self-defense um talk more 6 about that when you had a defendant who traveled to kenosha and brandished a rifle on the streets of a city in turmoil but it speaks to his mindset right yeah so this is why this case is such a lightning rod because the things that rittenhouse did were legal underneath the law so he could go to uh wisconsin you go to kenosha he could open carry a 6 ar- rifle he’s allowed to do all those things now people look at that this is an emotionally charged setting and here you are coming in here with this firearm and it’s being brandished and people are going to take that the wrong way and there’s in a situation occurred but at the time the situation occurred we had rosenberg chasing him right at that time what rittenhouse thought at that time you had a right for for self-defense after that you had two individuals uh gage and the other individual that died they think they’re stopping an active shooter but once again the law doesn’t say what do they think at that time it only matters what retin house thought at that time and i understand he says i think my life is being in jeopardy at this point i’m 6 being knocked on the ground being hit with a skateboard and i got a guy pointed a gun at me so once again the self-defense rules say he’s allowed to to act in that way and that’s the law 6 and you know that’s just the way it is in this case and to defend himself yeah enrique l1 Latoison thanks so much we always appreciate your perspective

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