Rittenhouse trial begins, Chauvin trial juror identities revealed

Update (11/2/21): Jury selection in the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse wrapped up Monday night, paving the way for opening statements to begin Tuesday. The video above shows clips from our selection. The jury includes 12 jurors and eight alternates.

11 of the jurors are women, nine are men. Jurors were not asked to identify their race during the selection process, and the court did not immediately provide a racial breakdown of the group.

Rittenhouse faces life in prison if convicted of first-degree homicide, the most serious charge against him.

_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Original Story (11/1/21): The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse got underway Monday with the task of seating jurors who hadn’t already made up their minds about the teen who shot two people to death and wounded a third during a night of anti-racism protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin last year.

The jury that is ultimately selected in the case will have to decide whether Rittenhouse acted in self-defense, as his lawyers claim, or was engaged in vigilantism when he opened fire with an AR-15-style semiautomatic rifle.

By early evening, at least 29 of the 150 or so prospective jurors summoned had been dismissed, about a dozen of them because they had strong opinions about the case or doubts they could be fair. Some also expressed fear about serving on the jury because of public anger but were not immediately let go.

Rittenhouse was 17 when he traveled to Kenosha from his home in Illinois to join the unrest. Rittenhouse said he went there to protect property after two previous nights marked by arson, gunfire and the ransacking of businesses.

“Those who are picked for this jury will be in the front row seat to see exactly what happened and make a rational decision based on that,” Kenosha County Judge Bruce Schroeder said Monday. “Anybody who is not on board with deciding strictly on the evidence needs to tell us that.”

The shooting grabbed headlines across the country, making jury selection for the Rittenhouse trial a difficult task.

“My biases go back to 14 months ago, I’ve been commenting consistently on news feeds in Facebook,” one potential juror said. Another added, “for religious reasons, I firmly believe that thou shall not kill. I don’t know what else to say. That’s my opinion. That’s been that way for a year now”.

Jury selection for the Rittenhouse trial began on the same day the names of the jurors in the Derek Chauvin murder trial were released. Judge Peter Cahill initially kept the names of the jurors sealed, citing the high-profile nature of the case. However, a media coalition asked Cahill to release the jurors’ identities. The coalition argued the media and public have a right to the information, and there was no known threat to juror safety that would warrant keeping their names sealed.

According to the court documents, the identities of the sworn jurors include:

– Joseph Tillman, Juror No. 2
– Journee Howard, Juror No. 9
– Tyler Burkhardt, Juror No. 19 (Jury Foreperson)
– Abel Sessofia, Juror No. 27
– Nicole Spader, Juror No. 44
– Brandon Mitchell, Juror No. 52
– Jodi Doud, Juror No. 55
– Tossa Edorh, Juror No. 79
– Tiffany Schultz, Juror No. 85
– Kelly Tapper, Juror No. 89
– Sherri Hardeman, Juror No. 91
– Kelly Preston, Juror No. 92