AUSTIN - Lee Merritt, a civil rights attorney running for Texas attorney general, recently tweeted that “Kyle Rittenhouse was not” entitled to self defense.
On Friday, a Wisconsin jury found Rittenhouse not guilty on all counts. Last summer, Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, fatally shot two people and injured a third during the civil unrest in Kenosha.
Following the verdict, Merritt tweeted that the “American courts are in desperate need of overhaul” and the decision “encourages vigilantism.”
“The law has never loaned the protections of self-defense to instigators of violence. This verdict is reached in contradiction to the law,” Merritt tweeted.
“Joseph Rosenbaum was entitled to self defense.
“Anthony Huber was entitled to self defense.
“Gaige Grosskreutz was entitled to self defense.
“Ahmaud Arbery was entitled to self defense.
“Cameron Lamb was entitled to self defense.
“Kyle Rittenhouse was not.
“That is the law.”
According to the Prairie State Wire, court testimony detailed how Huber and Rosenbaum were violently rioting on the streets of Kenosha on Aug. 25, 2020 when they attacked Rittenhouse, who shot them both dead.
Huber tried to hit Rittenhouse with a skateboard. Rosenbaum was chasing him and tried to take his rifle, the article states.
At the time, Rosenbaum was a year removed from spending 14 years in an Arizona prison for child molestation, specifically anally raping and performing oral sex on five boys aged nine to 11 years old. He had actively open cases for domestic violence against his fiance and bail jumping when he died, the article states.
Cameras that night recorded Rosenbaum swinging a chain and screaming at armed Kenosha residents protecting their property. Wisconsin court records show Huber also spent time in a Wisconsin prison, for choking his brother. He was more recently convicted of domestic abuse and disorderly conduct in 2018, the article states.