According to reports, the judge presiding over the Kyle Rittenhouse case just ruled that the men shot by the teen cannot be referred to as “victims” by the prosecution, but can be called “rioters” and “looters.”
Wisconsin Circuit Judge Bruce Schroeder made the call during a pre-trial hearing on Monday. Schroeder noted that if the prosecution sets out to portray Rittenhouse as “a cold-blooded killer,” then his defense should be free to “call someone a rioter.”
However, Schroeder cautioned the defense not to use any pejoratives in the opening statements and reserve those for their closing arguments only under the conditions that they can produce evidence justifying the use of the terms. While stressing that the defense can use terms if they believe it’ll score them points with the jury, he said the use of the term “victim” to describe the two men Rittenhouse killed and the other he left wounded is prohibited. “Victim’ is a loaded, loaded word,” Schroeder told the court.
Rittenhouse is on trial facing multiple charges including first-degree homicide and reckless homicide. Trial proceedings are scheduled to start Monday.
Source: npr.org