KENOSHA COUNTY, Wis. — If you are planning to watch the Kyle Rittenhouse trial, there are a few key players.
Rittenhouse's defense attorneys include Mark Richards and Corey Chirafisi. They are based in Racine and Madison respectively. Both of them began their careers as prosecutors in Kenosha County.
The prosecutors include Kenosha County Assistant District Attorneys Thomas Binger and James Kraus.
"All of the lawyers are very experienced and talented individuals," said Patrick Cafferty, a local criminal defense attorney who will serve as TMJ4's legal analyst during the trial.
Rittenhouse is accused of shooting three men, killing two, during the unrest following the police shooting of Jacob Blake in August 2020.
The judge in this case is Judge Bruce Schroeder, who has sat on the bench in Kenosha County since 1983.
"I suspect with my age and my longevity, I maybe have tried more murder cases than anyone in the state," Judge Schroeder said during a hearing on Sept. 17.
Judge Schroeder has heard high-profile cases before, including the case of Mark Jensen, who was previously convicted of poisoning his wife in 1998. A new trial has since been ordered in this case.
The judge made national headlines this week for the word he won't let attorneys use when referring to the men Rittenhouse is accused of shooting.
"He most definitely said you can’t use the term victim, and that is consistent with my observation of him in just about every case I’ve ever tried," Cafferty said.
"As far as his rulings on the rioters, looters, that kind of language, he didn’t say, I'm going to allow the defense to call them that," Cafferty said. "What he said was basically, let’s hear the evidence, and if the evidence is going to support that kind of vocabulary, then sure, they'll be allowed to do that in the course of their closing arguments."
Jury selection is set for Monday.