The Cross Resumes: Liveblog

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Here's a recap of the last bits of the earlier cross, and some new stuff, to get us started:

Judge is now repeating he's "astonished," and began to speak of the "progress" of the trial, referencing what the defense attorney argued.

By "progress" of the trial, he's saying, "This trial has now officially gone too far for a second trial. This is THE trial. It would be unfair to the defendant to have a second trial when we are this close to a jury verdict."

He did not finish his thought-- but what he was starting to say was this:

"If you force a mistrial, it will be a mistrial WITH PREJUDICE, and all charges will be dismissed. You will not be allowed to contrive yourself a second trial through deliberate, brazen misbehavior."

The judge does in fact suspect that Littlefinger is trying to derail the current trial because he knows he's losing.

Littlefinger is engaging in tedious questioning to establish, stupidly and falsely, that if you have your gun on a sling, it is IMPOSSIBLE that anyone can take it from you or turn it against you. He's claiming this so as to claim that Rosenbaum posed no threat.

He's now talking about Full Metal Jacket rounds in order to claim that they can go through a body and injure people behind their targets, to prove recklessness. He wants to claim hollow points won't exit a body and therefore it was reckless to not use hollow points.

Littlefinger now claim that FMJ rounds were designed so that when you shoot one target they will continue travelling and hit bonus targets. Yeah. That's why they were made.

The judge stops him here. An expert witness called by the prosecutor to the stand could make such a claim (but wouldn't, because it's it's false and stupid), but Littlefinger has been testifying even though he's supposed to be asking questions, and the judge just stopped him and said "You've been testifying for a while now."

He also pointed out that FMJ do not automatically hit bonus targets, which severely understates it.

Now they break for lunch.

Blago points out that no matter what bullets Kyle used, Littlefinger would have claimed they were the "wrong bullets." If he had used hollowpoints, he would have said Kyle was looking to kill people.

571 And if he used hollow points, it would be he wanted "extra lethal" exploding bullets. Posted by: Blago

Hollowpoints expand when they pass through the human body because they are soft, being unjacketed by harder metal, and have hollow points rather than sharper, aerodynamic ones.

They tend to not penetrate the body as much as FMJ rounds. But, on the other hand, they produce really horrific wounds as they create especially large wound-channels as the bullet "mushrooms" to have a larger cross-section.

Whichever bullets Rittenhouse used, Littlefinger would be claiming this proves his guilt.

New observations:

Nick Rekieta summarizes that all of his panel agrees that Kyle should not be testifying, "But he's been rolling natural 20's on the stand so far."

One commentator calling himself "Good Lawgic" says that while ten of the jurors were probably not going to convict before Kyle took the stand, there would be "one or two Karens" who would convict just because Kyle "stirred up trouble" by just being on the streets (apparently antifa and BLM are allowed to do so) and would convict him just for inconveniencing them, and to show that they have Liberal Anti-Racist Virtue. He thinks that Kyle's testimony is necessary ammunition for the other jurors to "yell at Karen" when they insist on convicting an innocent man just so they can be Respectable.

There are a few things that we're afraid the prosecutor will bring up, or may bring up. But given the prosecutor has overstepped himself twice -- and has been yelled at, angrily, by the judge, for his "astonishing," "brazen" misbehavior -- he might have to recalibrate whether he can bring up these touchy subjects. This is stuff that may or may not be relevant -- prior bad acts by Rittenhouse. You cannot bring up prior bad acts of a defendant to prove they acted in comportment with previous bad behavior except for in a couple of limited exceptional cases (such as if your previous bad acts constitute a "signature" which is so similar to the act you're accused of it tends to prove you did it). You can bring in bad acts to establish your state of mind was culpable.

But this is treacherous ground, especially because the prosecutor has been twice warned.

Does he go ahead and gamble and bring this stuff up, knowing the judge might toss the case out if he disagrees it's admissible? At the very least he'll have to ask to approach the bench and ask permission to introduce this material, instead of saying YOLO and just injecting it into the case without alerting the judge.

One of MSNBC's many, many Diversity Racists is handling the day's events with the calm and equipoise with which she handled election night a week ago.

Defense is moving for mistrial with prejudice based on intentional bad-faith attempt to contrive a mistrial, because the prosecutor knows the trial is "going badly" and is "coping" by "prejudicing the defendant's ability to have a conclusive confrontation" at the current trial.

Judge wants prosecutor to brief him on what evidence he has that Kyle waived his right to the fifth amendment by speaking to the media.

Littlefinger tap-dances to justify his actions. Judge says he does not believe he acted in good faith. That's... problematic for the prosecution.

Littlefinger wants to introduce a selfie of Kyle wearing a t-shirt that says "Free as F***." For what purpose, I cannot imagine.

Actually, I can imagine. Supposedly some of the people in the picture are Proud Boys. While Binger claims he does not intend to say who those people are, he's a sneaky little shit and you damn well he would.

This is tense. I'm strung-out watching this. What about you?

Littlefinger is suggesting that it's wrongful to put out antifa fires without being a paid Kenosha fireman. He's against Vigilante Firefighters.

Sorry this is getting tedious. Littlefinger wants to establish that when Kyle was told BY ANTIFA to stay off the streets, and did not stay off the streets, he provoked them, and thus justified the attack by Rosenbaum.

This is an upside-down world-- Rittenhouse is on trial for being an illegal vigilante, but Littlefinger insists that the orders of antifa street vigilantes MUST BE REPECTED AS THE LAWFUL ORDERS OF THE STATE.

Littlefinger is doing the "A Few Good Men" thing. He's claiming that because Kyle said there was "no friction" with the crowd, there was no reason to carry the AR-15 to render medical aid. The real answer is: There's no such thing as perfect safety; people carry guns when they have no particular reason to fear danger.

Also, what would he do with the gun? Leave it on the street?

But Kyle isn't saying that. So this stupid gotcha is semi-effective, at least for Karen.

The basics of Littlefinger's line of questioning is that Kyle knew the crowd was hostile and so going on the streets shows his recklessness and willfulness in Defying Antifa's Martial Law.

Littlefinger is now questioning Kyle's My Cousin Vinnie-like "I shot the clerk?" statement. When someone said "You pointed a gun at me," he sarcastically said, "I did?" Littlefinger keeps calling this a lie.

The Rekieta commentators are going BERSERK over the defense attorneys refusing to object as the prosecution asks for one speculative answer after another (asking what other people thought or believed).

Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial for walking around without antifa's permission, similar to how the J6 defendants are on trial for "parading." Only some protesters are allowed to "parade" in federal buildings.

posted by Ace at 01:12 PM

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