KENOSHA, WIS. -- The judge in Kyle Rittenhouse's murder trial will use a raffle drum that sat in the courtroom throughout the two-week trial to select jurors who will be dismissed from the pool of 18 to get to the final 12 who will decide the case.
Schroeder told jurors last week that he would select as many people as necessary from the raffle drum Tuesday to get down to 12. The pool had started at 20, but one juror was dismissed for health reasons and another was let go after he told a joke related to the case to a bailiff.
The jury was to begin deliberations on Tuesday after closing arguments consumed the day Monday.
Rittenhouse faces a myriad of charges after he killed two protesters and injured a third on the streets of Kenosha last summer. The protests were spurred by the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man.
Rittenhouse, who was 17 at the time, argues he acted in self-defence. The most serious charge before jurors could put Rittenhouse in prison for the rest of his life.
Schroeder, 75, is the longest-serving circuit court judge in Wisconsin. His methods have drawn attention throughout the trial, including reading trivia questions to jurors at the outset, professing his lack of knowledge about modern technology, asking for applause for veterans on Veterans Day as a defence witness who served in the military was about to testify and sometimes speaking angrily at prosecutors when they pursued lines of questioning he had barred.
