Articles Posted in Breaking News

INTRO

Guilty on all counts! South Carolina prosecutors proved, beyond and to the exclusion of every reasonable doubt, that Alex Murdaugh murdered his wife and son. It took the jurors less than three hours to convict him of firing two shotgun blasts into his 22-year-old son Paul and firing four to five rifle shots into his 52-year-old wife Maggie. He testified in own defense and attempted to persuade jurors that he had nothing to do with the abhorrent crimes. Jurors rejected his testimony. There are many lessons from this trial. Here are just three main ones.

LESSONS LEARNED

Jurors’ Questions

If you’re on the Kyle Rittenhouse jury, there are many questions that are likely swirling around in your head. Every one of these are questions are ones that the prosecution would be thrilled to know you’re pondering. One may be, “Why does a 17-year-old own an AR-15, a military-style semi-automatic rifle?” That would be a fair question since it’s been called “A perfect killing machine.” It was engineered to have a “maximum wound effect.” The tiny bullets allegedly travel three times the speed of sound. After a bullet hits a body, the flesh is ripped open, destroying tissue, nerves, blood vessels and vital organs. It’s probably not the ideal Christmas gift for a teenager, whose brain’s frontal lobe, the portion governing reasoning and judgment, hasn’t even been fully formed. Another question may be, “Why the heck did this armed teenager have to go to the ‘protest’ and/or ‘riot’?” That’s another fair question since his hometown is Antioch, Illinois, 30 minutes away from Kenosha, the city in which the alleged crimes occurred. He chose to travel across state lines to put himself in the center of a violent scene. Although he alleged that evening on multiple occasions that he was an EMT, he was not. He lacked the appropriate training and experience to avoid potential conflict and to properly assist those in need.

Those questions, and others like them, are ones that the prosecution hopes the jury will focus on during deliberations. The prosecution deems them extremely relevant inquiries since they have attempted to persuade the jury that Rittenhouse provoked the attacks that led to the shootings. They alleged that Rittenhouse cannot avail himself of protection under the self-defense laws since his irresponsible actions caused the alleged victims to respond the way that they did.

(This is an article published in the Daily Mail on November 11, 2021 authored by Mark Eiglarsh as a guest contributor)

‘Desperate times call for desperate measures.’

That’s the quotation that comes to mind after observing the prosecutor’s behavior in court during the cross examination of Kyle Rittenhouse, who is on trial for shooting and killing 2 men and wounding a third during a night of violent riots and protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

By MARK EIGLARSH

SPECIAL TO THE SUN SENTINEL

OCT 19, 2021