Jurors in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial took a lunch break, dining on pizza, as the country awaited the final verdict on Tuesday, according to local reports.
“Jury is taking lunch break right now (pizza day),” reporter Kristen Barbaresi tweeted in an update Tuesday afternoon. “No word on how long the break will be. The media room lost internet for the last 20 min. This is the ‘there isn’t any news yet’ tweet”:
Jury is taking lunch break right now (pizza day).
No word on how long the break will be.
The media room lost internet for the last 20 min.
This is the “there isn’t any news yet” tweet.#KyleRittenhouse— Kristen Barbaresi (@KristenBarbar) November 16, 2021
Prior to lunch, jurors had been deliberating over three hours. Meanwhile, amidst the deliberations, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) pled for “peace in Kenosha” and across the state, no matter the verdict.
“Kenoshans are strong, resilient, and have worked hard to heal and rebuild together over the past year. Any efforts to sow division and hinder that healing are unwelcome in Kenosha and Wisconsin,” he wrote.
“Regardless of the outcome in this case, I urge peace in Kenosha and across our state,” he added:
Kenoshans are strong, resilient, and have worked hard to heal and rebuild together over the past year. Any efforts to sow division and hinder that healing are unwelcome in Kenosha and Wisconsin. Regardless of the outcome in this case, I urge peace in Kenosha and across our state.
— Governor Tony Evers (@GovEvers) November 16, 2021
The jury formally began the deliberations at 9:00 a.m. CST in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday after a 10-day trial. As Breitbart News reported, “The jury will consider two charges of first-degree murder, with the ability to convict on ‘lesser included offenses’”:
It will also consider two charges of reckless endangerment, and one charge of attempted murder. A curfew violation charge was dropped earlier in the trial, and the judge tossed a weapons charge Monday after prosecutors agreed Rittenhouse had not broken the law.
…
The prosecution spent much of its closing argument behaving as a team of defense lawyers, attempting to poke holes in the defense’s argument that Rittenhouse had acted in self-defense when he shot and killed two rioters and wounded another on August 25, 2020, during Black Lives Matter riots that wracked the city after false reports the police had shot and wounded an unarmed black man, Jacob Blake Jr. (Blake was later found to have been armed with a knife while resisting arrest.)
It remains unclear how long the jury will ultimately deliberate, but at this time, a decision could come as early as Tuesday afternoon.
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