EXPLAINER: How the Rittenhouse jury was narrowed

By SCOTT BAUER, TODD RICHMOND and MICHAEL TARM
Associated Press

KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — Kyle Rittenhouse played a direct role in choosing, albeit randomly, the final 12 jurors who are deciding his innocence or guilt in the murder trial over his killing two protesters and wounding a third last summer. At the direction of Circuit Judge Bruce Schroder, Rittenhouse’s attorney on Tuesday placed slips of paper into a raffle drum bearing the numbers of each of the 18 jurors who sat through the trial. Rittenhouse then selected six pieces of paper from the drum and a court official read the numbers aloud. Schroder on Wednesday defended his decision to let Rittenhouse pick the papers, saying he started allowing it after a trial where the defendant was Black and the only Black juror was dismissed.