But she said she was comforted when Schroeder postulated that maybe the country would calm down if it saw a verdict in a fair trial. The woman clarified that she was more concerned for the community as a whole, than for herself. Schroeder responded that in 38 years on the bench, he’s never had a juror threatened.
She said “either way this goes, you’re going to have half the country upset with you.” Yet another prospective juror had an earnest exchange with the judge when she admitted she was worried about being on a jury for a case that provokes such hostility. As a result, she was struck for cause.Īnother woman got emotional when talking about how entrenched her husband was in his views on the case and said if she served on the jury, it could end her marriage. One woman teared up and said her biracial granddaughter attended the protests, and said she couldn’t be impartial. The prospective jurors also shared how they were wrestling with the complexities of the trial. They were disqualified if they could not put aside what they thought based on out-of-court assumptions and decide the case just based on the evidence admitted in court. Having seen news coverage or videos of the incident was not an automatic disqualifier. Schroeder told the jury to pay attention only to what’s introduced as evidence in court and ordered them not to read, watch or listen to anything else about the case.ĭuring voir dire, prospective jurors spoke about their opinions, experiences and exposure to the facts around the case leading up to the trial. But Kenosha County Circuit Court Judge Bruce Schroeder, who is presiding over the trial, aims to make the focus as narrow as possible. The issues surrounding the trial evoke debate on issues like race, politics, policing and the Second Amendment. There were only a handful of Black prospective jurors in the in-court pool. It’s an almost entirely white jury, on the older side, and nearly split between men and women. They came from an overall pool of 150 people, 80 who were in the courtroom and were questioned. The jury consists of 20 people, 12 who will ultimately consider the verdict, and eight alternates. The jam-packed day of jury selection, also called voir dire, gave insights on the group of jurors that will be listening to the evidence and deciding the outcome of the Kyle Rittenhouse case. Here is an inside view of the proceedings Monday and insights about the jury: The shootings occurred as Rittenhouse sought to protect property amid the unrest that followed the police shooting of Jacob Blake, Jr., a Black man. Rittenhouse, who is now 18, shot three men, killing two of them, in Kenosha in August 2020. That’s despite a barrage of local and national media attention on the case. A jury heard opening statements Tuesday in the murder trial of Kyle Rittenhouse, after being picked and empaneled in one day on Monday.
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