The judge said that the law was unclear, and hen when law are unclear, sort of the tie goe to the defendant. But at the same time, the judge waited until just minutes before closing arguments to toss it. If he had tossed it before trial, if the judge had tossed it, then prosecutors could have taken it to a higher court.
After the Chicago Tribune’s Stacy St. Clair runs through the Rittenhouse trial and verdict, legal scholar Eric Ruben explains how “self-defense” can apply to shooting unarmed people in public.
Today’s show was produced by Hady Mawajdeh and Miles Bryan with help from Will Reid, edited by Matt Collette, engineered by Efim Shapiro, fact-checked by Laura Bullard and hosted by Sean Rameswaram.
Transcript at vox.com/todayexplained
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