Kyle Rittenhouse’s attorneys asked the judge on Wednesday to declare a mistrial without prejudice before the jury reaches a decision, arguing that the prosecutors sent them an inferior version of a key video. A mistrial with prejudice means Rittenhouse could be tried again if the judge were to grant the request. Judge Bruce Schroeder did not immediately rule on the request, the second mistrial motion this week. On Monday, the defense filed a mistrial motion with prejudice.
Defense says the filename sent earlier was not similar to the filename given over the weekend. pic.twitter.com/fJbT2CPDbG
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) November 17, 2021
Defense attorney Corey Chirafisi argued that the defense team would have done things differently had they received the higher quality video earlier. Although neither video shows Rittenhouse aiming his gun at the Ziminskis, the defense team is suggesting that the state manipulated critical evidence.
Assistant District Attorney James Kraus argued that it was not the fault of prosecutors that the file got compressed when it was received by the defense.
“We’re focusing too heavily on a technological glitch,” he said.
Judge Bruce Schroeder said he had felt queasy about admitting the higher quality video during the trial, but because it had already been shown in court, he would allow the jury to watch it again during deliberations.
Meanwhile, he said he would have to hear testimony from tech experts to settle the dispute about the video issue.
Schroeder warned that if it turns out the footage should not have been admitted into evidence, “it’s going to be ugly.”
Kraus tried to explain how the bad quality video evidence ended up being sent to the defense team.
https://twitter.com/oaktreeupheaval/status/1461064191100567559?s=20
Although Kraus claimed to have no idea how to compress a video, a video software app called Handbrake was spotted on his laptop during the hearing on Wednesday.
https://twitter.com/intel_wave/status/1461074129231228936?s=20
Handbrake calls itself an “open source video transcoder” that converts video from nearly any format.
The program is used to compress and downsize videos, but in doing so, it reduces the quality, tech experts say.
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) November 17, 2021
Judge Schroeder said the mistrial request would be addressed if there is a guilty verdict.