Judge Allows Rittenhouse to Randomly Select Final Jurors in His Case

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By Alyssa Wilson Published: November 17, 2021

Judge Allows Rittenhouse to Randomly Select Final Jurors in His Case

Kyle Rittenhouse pulls numbers of jurors out of a tumbler during his trial at the Kenosha County Courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., on Nov. 16, 2021. The jurors selected through this process will not participate in deliberations. As Rittenhouse’s trial has played out, moments of apparent deference to the defendant by the judge have struck observers as curiously different from other murder proceedings. (Sean Krajacic/The Kenosha News via AP, Pool, File)

In Summary

In a rare move, Judge Bruce Schroeder let Kyle Rittenhouse randomly select six jurors in his trial who would not participate in deliberations.

Kyle Rittenhouse, the 18-year-old on trial for shooting a person and killing two others at a protest last year, had a direct role in picking the jurors deliberating his case.

According to the Associated Press, Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder allowed Rittenhouse’s attorney to place pieces of paper into a raffle drum with numbers representing 18 jurors. On Tuesday, Rittenhouse selected six pieces of paper with the numbers 11, 58, 14, 45, 9 and 52. The jurors whose numbers were called were dismissed and are not among the final 12 jurors deciding the teen’s fate.

After being questioned about letting Rittenhouse pick the jurors removed, Schroeder said he’s been having defendants pull the numbers of alternate jurors for decades, the Associated Press reported.

Portage County District Attorney Robert Jambois, who tried a high-profile murder case before Schroeder in 2008, said the clerk is typically the person who pulls the numbers from the tumbler in Schroeder’s courtroom, not the defendant. “I’ve never heard of a defendant pulling the names,” he said. “That’s done by a member of the court.”

BNC legal contributor Paul Henderson joined Making the Case w/Yodit to discuss the judge’s decision to allow Rittenhouse to randomly select jurors removed from deliberations.

Henderson said he’s seen the tumbler in the courtroom when he first began practicing law, but he’s never seen it used in that way. “Separate from whether you think someone is guilty or innocent, having the defendant actively engage with a member of the court like that, where they’re reaching in and interacting with someone other than their attorney in a courtroom, especially in a murder trial, is ludicrous, it goes beyond the pale. But beyond that, it sends a message to the jury and it sends a message to the audience that the judge and that courtroom is interacting inappropriately with someone who has been charged with a crime,” Henderson said. “Absolutely ludicrous.”

He also said the District Attorney and prosecution should have objected to the judge “showing favoritism” to the defendant.

The case is now in the hands of the jurors who are deliberating on the charges. Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, is accused of crossing state lines, shooting Gaige Grosskreutz and killing Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum at a demonstration protesting the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in August 2020.

He pleaded not guilty to six charges, including first-degree reckless homicide, first-degree recklessly endangering safety, first-degree intentional homicide, attempted first-degree intentional homicide, and first-degree recklessly endangering safety. Schroeder dismissed the misdemeanor weapons charge against Rittenhouse.

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