The prosecution and critics of Kyle Rittenhouse have said he should never have arrived at the Black Lives Matter protest scene with a weapon in the first place. But noted law professor Alan Dershowitz tells Newsmax Rittenhouse had a right to be there, and without a gun he would "probably be dead."
Rittenhouse is on trial for killing two men and wounding a third during the BLM protest in Kenosha, Wis., when he was 17 years old. He said he wanted to be there to offer medical aid and put out fires.
"If he hadn't gone there with a gun, he'd probably be dead," Dershowitz said Thursday on "Spicer & Co." "He went there with a gun because violence was threatened."
It would be better if nobody brought guns to protests, and everybody just used their voices, Dershowitz told hosts Sean Spicer and Lyndsay Keith. "But that's not the reality in which many from Black Lives Matter operate," he said.
Much of how the verdict is rendered will depend on the judge's jury instructions, Dershowitz predicted, noting that in such cases, they are often difficult.
But Rittenhouse was smart in taking the stand, especially since he doesn't have a long criminal record.
"This is not a case that's going to be determined by the forensics alone," he said. "The jury is going to have to look him in the eye and say, 'Do we believe he was scared?' The fact that he broke down on the witness stand, even though a basketball player mocked him for that, it seemed genuine to me. It seemed authentic and if it's seen as genuine by the jury it will have an impact."
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