"It's really difficult when you have a lot of people with weapons, all perceiving each other as a threat that needs to be curtailed or neutralized - it becomes very, very dangerous for all the people involved," Miller said.Īrbery case: Former law encouraged 'vigilante-style violence'Īs for the trial of Travis and Gregory McMichael and William "Roddie" Bryan, experts say Arbery's death put a spotlight on the intersection of gun violence, self-defense and race.Īll three men who had been charged in the death of Ahmaud Arbery were convicted of murder Wednesday in the fatal shooting. He said that the question of "who was the aggressor and who was the defender" in these cases will only get more complicated as more people buy guns and carry those weapons openly. MORE: America has a gun violence problem. Miller, a professor at Duke University School of Law, told ABC News that some may find the Rittenhouse verdict to be confirmation "that in those cases in which they perceive that law enforcement is either unwilling or unable to keep the peace, that they are entitled to keep the peace for them." It used to be that defendants in the United States had the burden of proving self-defense."ĭarrell A.H. "The prosecution has to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt," Ruben said. In addition, in Wisconsin, like most other states in the country, the defendant no longer has to prove self-defense - rather the burden of disproving the argument rests with the prosecution, Ruben said. "The video showed that he was in the midst of a chaotic situation and people were coming at him," Ruben said. Rittenhouse was acquitted on all charges: two felony counts of first-degree recklessly endangering safety, first-degree reckless homicide and first-degree intentional homicide and attempted first-degree intentional homicide.Įric Ruben, a professor at Southern Methodist University Dedman School of Law, said that what was crucial for Rittenhouse is that "the time frame for considering self-defense is the time right around the confrontation." Rittenhouse had already shot and killed two people at the protests and Grosskreutz said he "thought the defendant was an active shooter," a characterization that prosecutors used as well. Gaige Grosskreutz, the third man who Rittenhouse shot and the only survivor, testified about drawing his own pistol on Rittenhouse. Rittenhouse testified that one of the men he killed, Joseph Rosenbaum, had lunged for his gun, and the other, Anthony Huber, had chased him down and was attacking him with a skateboard when he too reached for Rittenhouse's gun. MORE: The long, strange trip of Kyle Rittenhouse's trialīut Rittenhouse, who had pleaded not guilty, and his defense team argued that he came there to offer medical aid, was not looking for trouble and that he did not intend to kill the people he shot - only "stop" the threats he faced from the three men. Prosecutor Thomas Binger in the Wisconsin case argued in closing statements that Rittenhouse was part of a group of "chaos tourists" and "wannabe soldiers" with no personal connection to the area who were "trying to feed off of what we were going through" in the wake of Blake's shooting.īinger also argued that Rittenhouse provoked the situation by bringing a weapon and pointing it at people, enabling him to "hide behind self-defense" and that he had a duty to "exhaust all reasonable means to avoid confrontation." Rittenhouse, 18, fatally shot two white men and wounded another with an AR-15-style semi-automatic rifle during anti-police brutality protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August.ĭays-long protests erupted over the non-fatal police shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, prompting an online call for "armed civilians" to defend "our lives and property" after the demonstrations turned violent in the days prior. "That's why I believe we need the 'stand your ground' law." Aaron Pilkington, when presenting a bill in February that would allow an armed person to use deadly force if they believe they are in imminent danger. "In these situations, you don't always have time to decide if you could safely retreat or not," said Arkansas State Rep.
However, other lawmakers believe self-defense legislation should continue to be expanded and are pushing forward bills to do so.