Defendant Kyle Rittenhouse selected six jurors at random to serve as alternates, as jury deliberations began in his murder trial in Kenosha Wisconsin on Tuesday morning.
According to Kenosha County Court procedures, 18 potential jurors sat through the 10 days of Rittenhouse‘s murder trial, and then six were selected to be dismissed as deliberation began.
The six must still stay in the courthouse in the unlikely event that one of the 12 jurors inside deliberations has to be excused or dismissed.
In the hushed courtroom, officials produced a small barrel with slips of paper inside it, on which the numbers of each juror were written. The barrel was turned, and Rittenhouse was permitted to select six slips of paper . The six numbers – 11, 58, 14, 45, 9, and 52, were read, and the rest of the jury was led out of the courtroom.
Judge Bruce Schroeder then thanked the six dismissed jurors for their service, and said he hoped that a movie or other entertainment would be provided to them as they waited for the actual jury to complete its deliberations.
Rittenhouse faces five charges, after a sixth charge on unlawful possession of a weapon by minor was tossed by the judge on Monday.
Two charges are for murder, one is for attempted murder, and two are for reckless endangerment. Self-defense is a defense to each of the charges.
Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.