A lone juror in the Kyle Rittenhouse murder trial voted for an 8:00 a.m. start time for the third day of deliberations, as as Kenosha, Wisconsin, Judge Bruce Schroeder dismissed the jury Wednesday evening after the second day of deliberations.
The judge called the jury back at roughly 4:30 p.m. Central Standard Time, after they had reviewed video evidence in the case. He then polled the jury to confirm that 9:00 a.m. was a suitable start time the following day; one voted for a start time of 8:00.
Judge Schroeder then dismissed the jury, and gave the attorneys and the defendant a rambling explanation of the architecture and décor of the wood-paneled courtroom, which he noted was completed in 1923, with an “ornate” skylight and a quote from Abraham Lincoln.
The 1836 speech from which Schroeder quoted is known as the Lyceum Address. Lincoln condemned the actions of a mob in Missouri that had murdered and burned two escaped black slaves. And he warned against mob justice (original emphasis):
I hope I am over wary; but if I am not, there is, even now, something of ill-omen, amongst us. I mean the increasing disregard for law which pervades the country; the growing disposition to substitute the wild and furious passions, in lieu of the sober judgment of Courts; and the worse than savage mobs, for the executive ministers of justice. This disposition is awfully fearful in any community; and that it now exists in ours, though grating to our feelings to admit, it would be a violation of truth, and an insult to our intelligence, to deny. Accounts of outrages committed by mobs, form the every-day news of the times.
…
While, on the other hand, good men, men who love tranquility, who desire to abide by the laws, and enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country; seeing their property destroyed; their families insulted, and their lives endangered; their persons injured; and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better; become tired of, and disgusted with, a Government that offers them no protection; and are not much averse to a change in which they imagine they have nothing to lose. Thus, then, by the operation of this mobocractic spirit, which all must admit, is now abroad in the land, the strongest bulwark of any Government, and particularly of those constituted like ours, may effectually be broken down and destroyed–I mean the attachment of the People. Whenever this effect shall be produced among us; whenever the vicious portion of population shall be permitted to gather in bands of hundreds and thousands, and burn churches, ravage and rob provision-stores, throw printing presses into rivers, shoot editors, and hang and burn obnoxious persons at pleasure, and with impunity; depend on it, this Government cannot last.
The judge told six alternate jurors that they had to continue to come to court in case they were needed.
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.
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