Okay, now that I have some time, let's break this down.
Patton French
Okay, as a lawyer, I feel a need to interject
The prosecution blew it. It’s a given that this nut job went to WI looking for trouble.
No, that cannot be said. You're asserting facts not in evidence.
OMG, but let’s turn it into whether this poor teenager can protect himself? That’s not what it was about and any objective observer should see that. It was never about self defense!
The defendant gets to assert his own self-defense. The prosecutor does not get to tell a defendant whether or not he is allowed to assert self-defense, the prosecutor has to prove it was not self-defense.
Why would he have to defend himself from a situation he should never have injected himself into?
Rittenhouse had a legal right to be there. The prosecution tried to claim Rittenhouse had violated curfew as part of your argument but the judge struck that argument noting that the curfew order had been subsequently ruled unlawful by a separate court.
But the prosecutor fell into the “there are riots” trap and focused on whether the defendant felt threatened.
There was no trap. There were riots, your people attacked Rittenhouse and he's allowed to assert self-defense.
Of course he did, subjectively, but of course he created the threat.
This argument is divorced from everything seen in the videos and the testimony of witnesses.
The standard is not whether Rittenhouse subjectively felt threatened, but whether or not a reasonable person would also feel threatened. A lawyer ought to know this.
And the prosecutor exacerbated the problem by not seeking leave to address evidence that had previously been excluded. Rookie mistake by a non-rookie.
If the judge tells you evidence is excluded, it's excluded. I don't know how much you think you have to gain from challenging a judge's ruling but - whatever.
Sorry, the prosecutor seemed woefully unprepared. This is just the tip of my analysis. Sorry for being contrarian.
Ain't no way in hell this moron is an attorney arguing in front of a court, let alone a criminal court.
