Kyle Rittenhouse verdict: Gun group to ‘award’ AR-15 to teen as defence attorney calls Trump Jr ‘idiot’

Donald Trump has congratulated Kyle Rittenhouse for his homicide acquittal for shooting and killing two protesters and wounding another. The Independent’s Graeme Massie is following this one.

Kyle Rittenhouse would have been given a life sentence or shot dead if he had been Black, Nascar driver Bubba Wallace said on Friday.

“Let the boy be black and it would’ve been life… hell he would’ve had his life taken before the bulls*** trial,” Wallace wrote in a tweet after Rittenhouse was found not guilty of the homicide of Joseph Rosenbaum and Anthony Huber on Friday.

“Sad,” he added. The Independent’s Bevan Hurley has more.

After avoiding a possible life behind bars, Kyle Rittenhouse left Kenosha courthouse a free man to pursue a potential life of either nursing, politics or relative anonymity.

But his acquittal of first-degree intentional homicide may not end his legal woes as a battle brews over who gets the $2m raised for his bond, and his case is referred to the Department of Justice for possible federal charges.

The Independent’s Justin Vallejo has all the details.

The president weighed in on the controversial Kyle Rittnehouse verdict on Friday, writing in a White House statement that the decision to find the 18-year-old not guilty on all charges after shooting three people left him “feeling angry and concerned.”

Read the full statement below:

While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken. I ran on a promise to bring Americans together, because I believe that what unites us is far greater than what divides us. I know that we’re not going to heal our country’s wounds overnight, but I remain steadfast in my commitment to do everything in my power to ensure that every American is treated equally, with fairness and dignity, under the law.

I urge everyone to express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy. The White House and Federal authorities have been in contact with Governor Evers’s office to prepare for any outcome in this case, and I have spoken with the Governor this afternoon and offered support and any assistance needed to ensure public safety.

Kamala Harris says the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict “speaks for itself” and shows that America has more to do make its justice system “more equitable.”

The vice president was asked about the teenager’s acquittal over killing two protesters and injuring another during the 2020 Kenosha protests, as she boarded Air Force Two in Columbus, Ohio.

“My impressions about the verdict is that the verdict really speaks for itself. As many of you know I’ve spent a majority of my career working to make the criminal justice system more equitable and clearly there’s a lot more work to do,” she said.

The Independent’s Graeme Massie has the full story.

New York governor Kathy Hochul called for stronger gun control laws in the wake of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict.

“If there was any question about why we need strong gun safety laws, this is your answer,” she said on Friday on Twitter. “This should never have been allowed to happen in the first place.”

Mr Rittenhouse had initially been charged with a misdemeanor count of possessing an AR-15 style under the age of 18, but that was the court dropped the charge earlier this week on a technicality.

Kyle Rittenhouse became a right-wing celebrity even before his trial, and even though they’re a satirical news site, The Onion may be on to something when they joke that Mr Rittenhouse has been sentenced to a regular speaking slot at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

The 18-year-old, who was acquitted on all charges on Friday, has said he wants to live a normal life and continue his studies now that the trial is over.

That life, perhaps, will begin in a few weeks, as Rittenhouse has an interview scheduled with conservative Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson set for Monday.

The CPAC conference, an annual gathering of top conservatives, isn’t afraid to invite controversial speakers.

When asked about the verdict, President Joe Biden offered an expected but no less disappointing response. “Look, I stand by what the jury has concluded,” Biden said. “The jury system works, and we have to abide by it.”

It’s amazing to hear anyone say that with a straight face in 2021 but it feels even sillier coming from the man with a Black woman as his vice president. How many more examples do we need to see how untrue that is? Or better yet, how many more do people like Joe Biden stop pretending there isn’t a real problem?

This rhetoric along with the thinking behind it is largely why I could not bring myself to watch the trial of another white vigilante. George Zimmerman being acquitted of Trayvon Martin stripped me of any lingering hope that perhaps this country could live up to what it claims to be. However, as soon as conservatives took up Rittenhouse’s cause, as they did with Zimmerman, it was easy to see where this was going.

Read Michael Arceneaux’s powerful Indy Voices piece.

As the last of five “not guilty” verdicts were read aloud on Friday, Kyle Rittenhouse shook with sobs and collapsed, nearly falling out of sight of the television camera fixed on him in a Wisconsin courtroom.

It was instantly the defining image of the 18-year-old’s murder trial, which became such a subject of passionate debate about guns and justice that major broadcast and cable news networks set aside regular programming to reveal the jury’s decision.

Read the full story of this enduring photo:

Kyle Rittenhouse has been found not guilty on all five charges in his homicide trial for shooting dead two men and seriously wounding a third during a night of unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, last summer.

The jury returned its verdict on Friday afternoon after spending four days deliberating on the charges.

Mr Rittenhouse, 18, began shaking uncontrollably, before his knees appeared to give way and he collapsed to his seat as he learned he would walk out of court a free man.

The Independent has all the details on this high-profile verdict.