'Justice' takes more than 'a trial and a verdict,' expert says

The trial of Kyle Rittenhouse was not going to bring "justice" no matter what the verdict was, according to Vera Project Vice President Insha Rahman.

Rittenhouse was acquitted of all charges Nov. 19 after pleading self-defense in the deadly Kenosha shooting. He killed two men and wounded a third with an AR-style semi-automatic rifle in the summer of 2020 during a night of protests over the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white Kenosha police officer.

"What justice in this case would look like is that Jacob Blake was never shot seven times. Justice would look like Kyle Rittenhouse never had a gun that two men and were dead as a result of his actions and another one permanently maimed," said Rahman during a Nov. 19 conversation with PBS NewsHour's Nicole Ellis.

"That's what justice looks like, and it's going to take a lot more than a trial and a verdict to get us there."

Rahman said that those who are "dismayed at this verdict" should work to change the criminal justice system.

"I think the path forward is that we have to stop looking to individual cases and individual trials to deliver justice because we are not going to find it in this way," said Rahman.

"The work to be done moving forward is to have real true systemic policy reform around gun control around law enforcement and policing."

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