Kyle Rittenhouse, who was charged with homicide after fatally shooting two individuals and wounding a third during last year's racial justice protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin, was, on Friday, found not guilty on all counts, bringing an end to a long and emotional trial that captivated the nation.
As for his acquittal, ABC News contributor and legal analyst Channa Lloyd believes Rittenhouse's emotional testimony may have made all the difference for the jury deciding his fate.
"I think for these jurors, it was quite signifcant," Lloyd said of Rittenhouse's time on the stand. "What they wanted to see was why he felt like he needed to be in this posture of self defense. And I think that's what they got from him."
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"I think these jurors heard his story and felt like he was in a mode where he had to defend himself, that he had no other choice," Lloyd added. "That was what he conveyed on the stand through his testimony and I think that is what the jurors did identify with."
"In these self defense cases," she concluded, "they want to hear it through the eyes of the person that was there because that is our legal standard."
-
Settling the West Bank: a death knell for a Palestine state?In the Spotlight The reality on the ground is that the annexation of the West Bank is all but a done deal
-
Sudoku medium: August 23, 2025The Week's daily medium sudoku puzzle
-
Sudoku hard: August 23, 2025The Week's daily hard sudoku puzzle
-
ABC News to pay $15M in Trump defamation suitSpeed Read The lawsuit stemmed from George Stephanopoulos' on-air assertion that Trump was found liable for raping writer E. Jean Carroll
-
Judge blocks Louisiana 10 Commandments lawSpeed Read U.S. District Judge John deGravelles ruled that a law ordering schools to display the Ten Commandments in classrooms was unconstitutional
-
ATF finalizes rule to close 'gun show loophole'Speed Read Biden moves to expand background checks for gun buyers
-
Hong Kong passes tough new security lawSpeed Read It will allow the government to further suppress all forms of dissent
-
France enshrines abortion rights in constitutionspeed read It became the first country to make abortion a constitutional right
-
Texas executes man despite contested evidenceSpeed Read Texas rejected calls for a rehearing of Ivan Cantu's case amid recanted testimony and allegations of suppressed exculpatory evidence
-
Supreme Court wary of state social media regulationsSpeed Read A majority of justices appeared skeptical that Texas and Florida were lawfully protecting the free speech rights of users
-
Greece legalizes same-sex marriageSpeed Read Greece becomes the first Orthodox Christian country to enshrine marriage equality in law
