Wyoming | No, the facts of who was shot won't factor into the jury decision, and these facts will likely be withheld from the jury during the trial.
I've paid a fair wad of money to lawyers to counsel me on the issues of armed self-defense over the years, and one of the things that one of these attorneys told me is "The record of the criminal who broke down your door and who you ventilated on your floor will not be presented to the jury - because unless you knew him before he broke in, and you knew his record before he broke in, the jury will be presented with only the information you had at the moment you pulled the trigger."
The judge was correct to disallow the term "victim" because the three men who set upon Rittenhouse were combatants - they were engaged in assault and battery upon Rittenhouse at the time he shot them. They were not victims - he didn't just seek them out and shoot them. They forced themselves upon him.
People keep saying "Rittenhouse put himself into this position stupidly." Well, so did the three men he shot. Rittenhouse didn't force them to assault him. Rittenhouse didn't sucker them in. They chose to engage a guy carrying a rifle. Where I come from, that's varsity-grade stupidity right there. |