CNN Legal Analyst Accuses Rittenhouse of ‘Rehearsed’ Testimony: Is He ‘Telling the Truth’ or Giving the ‘Performance of a Lifetime?’
On Wednesday, CNN legal analyst Areva Martin panned Kyle Rittenhouse’s testimony as “rehearsed.”
Rittenhouse who was 17 years old when he shot three victims, killing two, while responding against rioters in Kenosha, Wis., last year – took the stand on Wednesday. He faces six charges. The riots occurred in the aftermath of a police officer excessively shooting Jacob Blake, a Black man, in self-defense as Blake was charging with a knife at the officer as officers were trying to arrest Blake over a warrant on sexual assault charges.
Following the defense and prosecution questioning Rittenhouse, Martin and CNN legal analyst Laura Coates gave their reactions as the trial paused for a lunch break.
“The defense had Rittenhouse, right, go through the sequence of events that night. And he had the opportunity then to detail threats he says he heard from two of those that he shot and killed,” said CNN Newsroom anchor Ana Cabrera. “But, Areva, obviously this isn’t going to be his word against theirs. They’re dead. What kind of impact does that have?”
“Very impactful. And one thing I’ll say to what Laura just said, yes, on cross-examination what we saw was, I thought, a very rehearsed Kyle Rittenhouse,” responded Martin. “He was using terms that I don’t imagine your typical 17-year-old, he was 17 at the time, 18 now, he’s a nursing student, he’s not a pre-law student, he’s not a law student. So he was using some terms that I would think wouldn’t be in the vocabulary of your typical 17- or 18-year-old.”
“And jurors are smart. They’re going to catch onto that. And I think he was using language that really laid out this legal self-defense, you know, legal self-defense, is what his lawyers are going to argue,” she continued. “And I think jurors picked up on that. That this guy, yes, were very emotional on direct examination but yet when he it came to cross-examination he, you know, became as Laura said, defiant and then he almost became like a junior lawyer, using a lot of legalese and talking and terminology. So they’re going to have to weigh the credibility.”
Martin also said that “we won’t hear from those two men that he killed.”
“So it really comes down to, do we believe Kyle Rittenhouse is telling the truth or is he just giving the performance of a lifetime,” she said.
Watch above, via CNN.
