NBC’s Cevallos: Rittenhouse Prosecution Had ‘Really Poor Facts’ 

During MSNBC’s coverage of the Kyle Rittenhouse verdict, NBC Legal Analyst Danny Cevallos said that the issue in the case was that there were “really poor facts for the prosecution” and the prosecution “didn’t have particularly good facts.”

Cevallos said, “[I]t’s not so much that it was a poor prosecution, but really poor facts for the prosecution. In Wisconsin, the prosecution had to disprove self-defense, all the elements, or any one of them beyond a reasonable doubt in addition to proving their case. Now, at the last minute, they almost snatched victory from the jaws of defeat when they got the provocation instruction. Because that could completely upend the self-defense defense. But to win on prosecution, they needed to convince a jury that to initiate that confrontation with Joseph Rosenbaum, that Kyle Rittenhouse was the one who started it, and the only evidence they ever had of that was this grainy, pixelated video imagery that showed up mid-trial. And, as the defense, correctly pointed out, provocation was so important to the prosecution, that they mentioned it in their opening statement 0.0 times. So, here, the prosecution really, it can’t be said they weren’t aggressive. In fact, it’s their aggressiveness that almost got them in a lot of trouble. They almost crossed several different lines. So, in this case, the prosecution did their best, but they didn’t have particularly good facts. The defense did a very good job. Because an acquittal on all counts is a good job no matter how you paint it.”

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