her hands and she appeared to be crying. there were also family members of those who were shot and killed that day and injured. very upset with this verdict, feeling like justice was not done. but for kyle rittenhouse and his attorneys, they were pleased with this verdict, though it took about 25 hours for this jury to deliberate and get through to this not guilty verdict. here s what kyle rittenhouse s defense attorney had to say about the verdict. it s been a long three weeks. we re very happy with the verdict. we re happy that the jury took the time, put in an incredible amount of effort. there were times we doubted the case. there were times we were confident. and to say that we were relieved would be a gross misunderstatement. the star evidence in this case for anyone who was sitting and watching the trial really
it has been in all the weeks that we have been here. the 2 1/2 weeks of this trial, there was a little bit of arguing going on outside as soon as the verdict was known to the public. you had the uncle of jacob blake, justin blake out here. he had been here every day of the trial. but what ended up happening in the end is it dissipated in the last couple of hours, and there are far fewer people on those court steps than there have been in the last two-plus weeks. i want you to stand by, sara. i m going to bring into this conversation, i also want to bring in defense attorney shan wu and elie honig. shan, not guilty on all charges. what s your reaction to this verdict? not surprised, wolf. i really think this case offers us a glimpse and a reminder of everything that s wrong with our criminal justice system. the prosecutors here did themselves no favors. they had a lot of self-inflicted
just as much culpability as anyone else. this is certainly desperation. it comes as a jury in wisconsin acquitted kyle rittenhouse on all counts earlier today. does the arbery family have any reaction to that verdict? it s deeply troubling. it s very scary for that family. kyle rittenhouse was a vigilante who instigated an encounter with people. then he used the danger that he created to justify the use of deadly force. that s very similar to what happened in glenn county there in south georgia. ahmaud was the victim of vigilante justice. misidentified as someone who may have been responsible for petty thefts in the area, and instead of allowing law enforcement to look into it, these men decided to take the law into their own i think we just lost our connection with lee merritt. that s their defense. lee, can you hear me okay?
judge ended up dropping in this case. we also learned that rittenhouse was staying at his father s home, and there are other family members here in kenosha. the night of this, he was here staying with a friend. so he didn t come into town with this rifle from illinois where he lives with his mother. he was already in town, the rifle was already here in the state of wisconsin at his friend s family s home. there were lots of different things that we learned in this trial, and that the jury learned and then took back, looked over all of the evidence and came up with a not guilty verdict. and in this country, you cannot be tried twice for the same crime once you are acquitted. so he is a free man tonight. no double jeopardy as they say. shan, the jury clearly believed rittenhouse was acting in self-defense, but he wouldn t have needed to act, let s say in self-defense if he hadn t been there armed himself with an ar-style an ar-15 style rifle. is that simply not relevant from
it s awfully hard to make a self-defense case without calling the defendant himself. it s worth reflecting here. the prosecution really did not do much on the cross-examination of kyle rittenhouse. i don t think they undermined his credibility. i don t think they undermined his fundamental story. wolf, as to that show of emotion, it s worth keeping in mind, the most solemn event we have in our criminal justice system is when a jury delivers a verdict. particularly in a murder case. the stakes are just unimaginable for everybody. you have a defendant, his liberty is on the line, whatever anyone may think of him. you have the family of the people who were killed. again, whether this was legally self self-defense, legally not self-defe self-defense, you have to empathize for the people who lost family members here. shan, it was never going to be necessarily what they call a slam dunk, but how much of this verdict do you attribute to the performance by the prosecutor and the, let s call