Former Prosecutor on Rittenhouse Trial: ‘If There is a Conviction Here, I Am Certain It Will Be Reversed’
During a CNN discussion Thursday of Kyle Rittenhouse’s headline-grabbing murder trial, former New Jersey prosecutor Bob Bianchi argued that “if there is a conviction here, I am certain it will be reversed.”
As the trial dominated cable news yesterday, pundits and legal analysts combed through the various arguments, testimonies, and heated exchanges in the courtroom with many focusing on the prosecution’s stumbles, tensions with the judge, and what Bianchi sees as a potentially fatal due process violation.
“You may be seeing the prosecutor, his desperate attempts yesterday, by the way, doing stuff with the 5th Amendment that’s mind-blowing cause for reversal of this case if there is even a conviction,” said Bianchi on CNN’s Newsroom.
Bianchi — a Law&Crime analyst — then referred to a bombastic exchange during the trial Wednesday in which Judge Bruce Schroeder reprimanded the prosecutor, Assistant District Attorney Thomas Binger, for what he called a “grave constitutional violation.” Schroeder took issue with what he saw as Binger insinuating that Rittenhouse’s silence after being arrested implied guilt — despite “the right to remain silent” being a constitutionally protected part of due process.
Bianchi explained what happened:
“The judge said this was a grave constitutional error to talk about his [Rittenhouse’s] post-arrest silence, we know as prosecutors never to go anywhere near it, don’t think about it. He directly went to it. If there is a conviction here, I am certain it will be reversed.”
CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin had a slightly different take, saying:
“I agree he [Binger] handled it poorly when he was asking the questions, that Rittenhouse gave certain interviews to the news media that he was referring to in the – referring to prior statements. He certainly had a right to do that. You have no 5th amendment right to talk or not talk to a reporter. He did it in a very clumsy way. But, I am less sure that this would be a reversible error.”
Bianchi shot back, arguing that Binger said, “‘since you’ve been arrested, to this day, you’ve never spoken about this case, you have not discussed this case.’ That is a clear violation.”
Bianchi went even further saying, “There is no question, as a former homicide prosecutor, a seasoned prosecutor should have known. He did that as an act of desperation, and I anticipate not only will the case get reversed for that, but this judge may put him up on ethics charges for doing that.”
Watch above, via CNN.
