Kyle Rittenhouse conducts random draw, seating 7 women and 5 men for his jury

On Tuesday, Kyle Rittenhouse chose at random the names of the 12 jury members who would rule whether or not to hold him criminally responsible.

The 18-member jury that has sat in on the trial for the past two weeks was reduced to 12 who would decide the ruling. Rittenhouse was asked to draw the names from a tumbler. He picked each one and placed them on the defense table. Once all twelve were picked, they were taken by a court official and given to the prosecutors. Eleven of the twelve appeared to be white.

Judge Bruce Schroeder sent the jury away to make their deliberations. He then told lawyers for both the prosecution and the defense to stay within ten minutes of the courthouse. That way, if the panel had a question that needed debate, he could call them back.

Schroeder said that there would be about an hour between the time the jury made their decision and the time it would be read in court. Although the testimony ended by 5PM most days, Schroeder said he wouldn’t put an end time on the jurors’ deliberations each day.

Kyle Rittenhouse is on trial for shooting three men, two of whom later died, in Kenosha, Wisconsin while social justice protests were taking place. The protests were following the shooting of a Jacob Blake, a Black man, by a cop, who was white.

Rittenhouse, while still 17-years old, traveled from his hometown of Antioch, Illinois, about 30 minutes from Kenosha, to volunteer to help with cleanup while the protests were ongoing. He is facing one count of intentional homicide, one count of reckless homicide, one count of attempted intentional homicide, and two counts of reckless endangerment.