Judge allows extradition of teenager accused of shooting Wisconsin protesters
30 October 2020, 20:44
Defence lawyers sought to persuade Judge Paul Novak to block their client’s transfer to Wisconsin to face homicide charges.
An Illinois judge has ordered the extradition of a 17-year-old accused in the fatal shooting of two demonstrators in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
The ruling in Kyle Rittenhouse’s case came after a hearing at the Lake County Courthouse in Waukegan, Illinois.
Defence lawyers sought to persuade Judge Paul Novak to block their client’s transfer to Wisconsin to face homicide charges.
Rittenhouse’s attorneys argued he acted in self-defence on August 25 when he opened fire during unrest after the shooting of a black man by a white police officer in Kenosha.
They said the charges are politically motivated and that extraditing the teenager would violate his constitutional rights.
Lake County prosecutors have said those arguments were irrelevant on the question of extradition and that it is the role of a Wisconsin judge, not one in Illinois, to decide whether there are sufficient grounds for charges.
In Wisconsin, Rittenhouse faces first-degree intentional homicide for fatally shooting two protesters, which carries a life prison sentence.
He is also charged with attempted intentional homicide in the wounding of a third protester.
