During the speed-dating, one-day jury selection in the Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin — in the most consequential self-defense cases in years — one of his defense attorneys telegraphed that the defendant may testify.
Sure, that sounds super smart.
And who’s giving the impression that Rittenhouse might testify on his own behalf? Why, his own defense attorneys, that’s who.
Use-of-force expert and defense attorney Andrew Branca writes over at his Law of Self Defense website that the defense suggested during voir dire that Rittenhouse might take the stand.
Rittenhouse’s attorney, Corey Chirafisi, asked the stable of prospective jurors this question and asked for a show of hands or a comment.
How ’bout Mr. Rittenhouse has the constitutional right to testify … uh, is there anyone here who find him less credible simply because he is charged in this case? That – no matter what he says, he’s less credible as a witness? Anybody actually believe that to be true? I don’t see any hands.
Was it a feint by his attorneys, or would Rittenhouse really be asked to subject himself to questioning from a prosecutor who has spent the last year planting stories in the press and in his judicial filings designed to dirty-up, Hillary-style, the 18-year-old’s reputation?
That should be a fair fight.
Rittenhouse is up on six charges of killing two men and wounding another. The charges could land the 18-year-old in prison for the rest of his life.
Related: Rittenhouse Defense Team Implodes Hours Before Jury Selection
Gambling with a case that Branca and other use-of-force experts believe is a clear-cut case of self-defense hoping that an 18-year-old can thrust and parry with a grown-up prosecutor is, to say the least, not a good idea.
Surely, someone left on this defense team knows this, right?
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