KENOSHA, Wis. (NewsNation Now) — NewsNation host Dan Abrams thinks the jury at Kyle Rittenhouse’s murder trial may soon announce a verdict after leaving day three of deliberations early.
“The fact that they’re ending at four o’clock in the afternoon, their deliberations and saying we’re going to come back the next day could suggest to me, because we didn’t hear anything from the jurors today, that they’ve got a verdict and they’re gonna come back in the morning with a verdict,” Abrams said.
Former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Janine Geske, who now teaches law at Marquette University, disagrees with that prediction.
“My sense is that they’re probably tired,” Geske, said on Dan Abrams Live. “They’re probably divided on some things. And they finally decided that they just couldn’t go on today and needed another day tomorrow to work on it.”
Unlike previous days, the jury had no questions and no requests to view any evidence Thursday. They ended their deliberations around 4:30 p.m. the day before.
“It’s probably contentious,” Daniel Adams, an attorney at the Adams Law Group and a former assistant district attorney for Milwaukee County, said on Dan Abrams Live. “It could be emotional. They’re definitely working through the jury instructions, which is what everybody at least says they want a jury to do. But hey, maybe they were just trying to beat that notorious Kenosha, you know, rush hour traffic.”
Rittenhouse, 18, is on trial for killing two men and wounding a third with a rifle during a turbulent night of protests that erupted in Kenosha in the summer of 2020 after a Black man, Jacob Blake, was shot by a white police officer.
Rittenhouse said he acted in self-defense after coming under attack, while prosecutors argued he instigated the bloodshed. He could get life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him.
The jury will return Friday morning to resume their deliberations.