Kyle Rittenhouse Trial Resumes After His Lawyers Ask Judge For Mistrial

Kyle Rittenhouse ’s defense team on Wednesday asked the judge presiding over his murder case to declare a mistrial with prejudice, meaning the state could not refile charges against him.

Judge Bruce Schroeder, who was visibly angry with the prosecution throughout Wednesday’s proceedings, said he would take the motion under advisement and did not issue a ruling, letting the trial proceed for now.

Rittenhouse, 18, is standing trial for murder charges over shooting and killing two people during a Black Lives Matter protest in Wisconsin last year. His lawyers cited prosecutorial misconduct in their request, saying the state attempted to introduce inadmissible evidence.

At issue was Kenosha County Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger asking Rittenhouse in front of the jury about his right to remain silent, which Schroeder said he had previously ruled the state prosecutor could not do, and a line of questioning from Binger about a video Schroeder had ruled inadmissible. The prosecutor said he had a different understanding about the matter. “I don’t believe you,” Schroeder replied, and warned that there had “better not be another incident.”

The exchange grew heated as the prosecutor said he was acting in good faith.

“You’re an experienced trial attorney, and you’re telling me that when the judge says, ‘I’m excluding this,’ you just take it upon yourself to put it in because you think that you’ve found a way around it? Come on!” Schroeder yelled.

The judge also ruled during the ordeal that Binger could not ask about photos taken of Rittenhouse in a bar after his arrest wearing a shirt that read “free as fuck” while he posed for photos with people.

Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time of the incident, has maintained that he acted in self-defense when he shot three people, killing two of them, who allegedly chased him, grabbed at his gun and struck him in the neck with a skateboard during the Aug. 25 protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin. But prosecutors say Rittenhouse, who had traveled from Illinois to Kenosha with an AR-15, had clear intentions of causing harm.

If convicted, he could face life in prison.