Lawyer Calls Judge Permitting Rittenhouse Juror to Take Legal Instructions Home 'Unusual'

The judge overseeing the Kyle Rittenhouse trial in Kenosha, Wisconsin, generated concern after permitting one juror to take home a copy of the provided legal instructions, the Associated Press reported.

Tom Grieve, a Milwaukee lawyer and former prosecutor who is not connected to the case, said Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder's decision was "definitely unusual in my experience."

"The natural issue is that it will precipitate armchair research and table discussion," he said.

Rittenhouse, 18, is on trial for charges related to the killing of two men and wounding of a third during the turmoil that broke out in Kenosha in the summer of 2020 after a police officer shot Jacob Blake, a Black man. Prosecutors argued throughout the trial that Rittenhouse incited the deadly encounters, while his defense team said the killings were in self-defense.

Schroeder read aloud some 36 pages of explanation on the charges Rittenhouse is facing and the laws regarding self-defense before deliberations commenced. After the jury ended its third day of deliberations on Thursday, one juror asked Schroeder if she could bring the jury instructions home with her, and he obliged, AP reported.

In addition to Grieve, Schroeder's decision troubled some people directly involved in the case. Rittenhouse attorney Mark Richards told Schroeder after the jury left that he was concerned permitting jurors to take the legal instructions with them would spur them to do online research or look things up in a dictionary, which is not allowed.

For more reporting from the Associated Press, see below.

The jury returned for a fourth day of deliberations on Friday.

Even as the jury weighed the evidence, two mistrial requests from the defense hung over the case, with the potential to upend the verdict if the panel were to convict Rittenhouse. One of the requests asks the judge to go even further and bar prosecutors from retrying him.

Rittenhouse's lawyers have complained that they were given an inferior copy of a potentially crucial video and that the prosecution asked improper questions of the defendant during cross-examination.

Rittenhouse was a 17-year-old former police youth cadet when he went to Kenosha in what he said was an effort to protect property after rioters set fires and ransacked businesses on previous nights.

He shot and killed Joseph Rosenbaum, 36, and Anthony Huber, 26, and wounded Gaige Grosskreutz, now 28. Rittenhouse is white, as were those he shot.

The case has exposed deep divides among Americans over guns, racial injustice, vigilantism and self-defense in the U.S.

Rittenhouse could get life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge against him.

Also Thursday, Schroeder banned MSNBC from the courthouse after police said they briefly detained a man who had followed the jury bus and may have tried to photograph jurors.

NBC News said in a statement that the man was a freelancer who received a citation for a traffic violation that took place near the jury vehicle, and he "never photographed or intended to photograph them."