Will Kyle Rittenhouse's case be a repeat of OJ Simpson? Civil lawsuit a possibility
Kyle Rittenhouse was fully acquitted on all five charges he stood trial for, after killing Anthony Huber and Joseph Rosenbaum in Kenosha in August 2020. The jury unanimously voted in favor of the teenager freeing him of all criminal charges. Voices from the field of law have weighed in saying he can be tried in civil court and penalties stemming from the same cannot be ruled out. Another high-profile case that was tossed in criminal court but later brought to civil court was Nicole Brown Simpson and Ron Goldman's where OJ Simpson was held liable and was asked to pay $33.5 million in damages.
A 12-member jury found Kyle Rittenhouse, 18, not guilty on two counts of homicide, one count of attempted homicide, and two counts of recklessly endangering safety during 2020 street protests in the city of Kenosha, Wisconsin. Rittenhouse was fighting back tears when the not guilty verdict was being read out in court and he collapsed in his seat after the final jury vote was read. The teen was trolled on Twitter for "ugly-crying" while another section on the Internet said watching him cry on the stand felt like a punch in the gut and served as a reminder that he is just 18.
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Will Kyle Rittenhouse face same fate as OJ Simpson?
Rittenhouse is an 18-year-old, hopeful to make a career out of nursing. The Rittenhouse family spokesperson, David Hancock said his client is "studying pre-requisites at Arizona State University for nursing and he is going to continue that. We’re going to do everything we can to make sure he can live a normal life moving forward." If he's taken to civil court for wrongful deaths, he might not have the money to shell out millions in payout. However, he had no problems putting together a $2 million bond last year in bail with the help of the Fight Back Foundation, co-founded by one of his attorney's Lin Wood. “We fight back to protect individual rights and stop those who would use political power to attack constitutional rights,” the foundation's motto reads.
Adding to the same, Ion Meyn. a law teacher at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told NBC, "He's a public figure now, and money might come in. I'm not convinced there's nothing there." In case, Rittenhouse is called to stand trial in a civil court for wrongful deaths, plaintiffs will only have to prove that his intentional and unlawful conduct resulted in Huber and Rosenbaum's deaths. Civil trials come to a decision on the basis of evidence, a much lesser burden than is required in a criminal case. A criminal jury might acquit an accused after failing to find an accused guilty if the prosecution fails to convince the court that based on the evidence, there is no other reasonable explanation other than that the accused is guilty. A civil jury might reasonably find by a preponderance of the evidence that the defendant's unlawful conduct resulted in civil liability.
"In a civil case you just have to prove negligence," said Rory Little, a professor at the University of California Hastings College of Law. "Did his conduct fall below the standard of care that the average person would have?" Rittenhouse "could say, 'I didn't have the intent to kill anyone — I just panicked,'" Little added. "The jury could still say, 'We didn't think the average person would do what you did.' If your conduct is judged to be less than that, you lose," she added. Legally outcomes from a criminal and civil trial don't contradict each other.