JUDGE REFERS TO PAST JUROR AS ‘A BLACK’

The judge overseeing Kyle Rittenhouse’s trial came under fire on Wednesday after he referred to a juror in a previous case he presided over as “a Black.”

Judge Bruce Schroeder explained his choice to allow Rittenhouse to pick the names of the six jurors who would not be joining the final jury of 12 out of a tumbler by saying he started the process after “bad optics” in a previous case.

He said a clerk chose “a Black, the Black, the only Black” in the jury pool to be removed in that instance.

“There were 13 jurors, one of whom was Black. And when the clerk, the government official, drew the name out of the tumbler, it was a Black, the Black, the only Black,” he said during his lengthy explanation, according to The Independent.

“There was nothing wrong with it, it was all OK, but what do they talk about – optics, nowadays … That was a bad optic, I thought,” he said.

“I think people feel better when they have control, so ever since that case I’ve had an almost universal policy of having the defendant do the picks.”