Politics and criminal prosecutions are a bad mix. Any fair-minded person could see that during the trial of Kyle Rittenhouse in Wisconsin over the last several weeks. In what can only be described as a politically-motivated, bad faith prosecution initiated by the Kenosha County District Attorney’s Office, justice was finally realized today when a jury acquitted Mr. Rittenhouse of all charges. Despite the repeated misconduct of the lead prosecutors in this case – i.e. commenting on Rittenhouse’s post-arrest silence, withholding evidence from the defense and engaging in tactics and behavior clearly designed to provoke a mistrial to give the State another bite at the proverbial apple – Kyle Rittenhouse today is a free man because the law and facts won out over all the extra-judicial considerations thrown into this case.
This entire ordeal should remind all of us that the criminal justice system should never be used in a way inconsistent with the rule of law and the Constitutional protections of the accused. If I am elected Attorney General of Rhode Island in 2022, all Rhode Islanders can be sure that no criminal prosecution will be brought against anyone without evidence reasonably likely to result in a guilty finding after trial and all cases will be thoroughly reviewed by apolitical staff and attorneys to ensure that none of the unprofessional prosecutorial behavior we saw in the Rittenhouse trial will happen here in Rhode Island. Unlike our current Attorney General, who has tried to use both the criminal justice system and the courts in general to further a partisan agenda, my only agenda as Attorney General will be the search for justice for victims of crime, justice for the accused, and always doing what’s right for the people of the State of Rhode Island by keeping the Law Above Politics.
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