Highland Park Shooting Trial: Start opening statements

At night before a man for the Highland Park Parade Shooting Trial was selected to the jury, he briefly discussed the case with his wife at home, he said.

“I could see in her face that I think she,” I think, “said the camp employee on Tuesday during the jury's selection process. “The expression she had on her face was disgusted.”

It was the second day of the jury's selection in the trial of Robert Crimo III, which is accused of carrying out the mass shootings of 2022 independence day, in which seven people, four dozen injured and an entire community were traumatized.

Crimo's public defense lawyer then asked the man-one for almost decades of Lake County, who said that he was mostly reminiscent of the shootout-if he could put these emotions aside and listen to the evidence fairly and impartially.

“I like to think yes,” he replied.

He was not the only juror who expressed an opinion before he appeared for the jury. A woman chosen for the panel thought that crimo was guilty of earlier news, but said that she was good at “dividing” and could be a judgment based on facts. Another said that she had not pursued the case much since 2022, but that “we all assumed that he was guilty.”

With the opening statements in the procedure, which are supposed to begin on Monday in the courtyard of Lake County, the criminal defenders from Chicagoer, the experience in top -class cases, offered an insight into the way in which Crimo's lawyers of the “next” task could fulfill a man who is not believing that they are inconceivable.

“The reality is that not every case is defending, and the evidence in this case is overwhelming,” said Mark Richards, a prominent defender and former prosecutor in nearby Racine County, Wisconsin. “You think you will get a fair and impartial, uninventible jury is simply not realistic.”

Richards is probably the best known for the representation of Kyle Rittenhouse. While this process was very top -class and marked a flash point in the debate about weapons rights and racist inequalities, said Richards that the defense had evidence that could refute the case of the state.

Without “incredibly powerful evidence,” said Richards, it is difficult to ask the jury to put away their previous beliefs. It just goes against human nature, he said.

“Our system, it is the best system that exists and it is entitled to a process,” he said. “But you can't just get 12 people who have been brought here by Mars and get them to determine what happened and what not.”

Sam Adam, known for his passionate defense against R&B singer R. Kelly and former governor Rod Blagojevich, said that the defense will probably become the “why” of the case in order to do the case to make the case “at least humanly in the juror thoughts, because it has to question a video of the police in which he is questioned the shot at the shootout.

“(Crimo) has no experience in public, has no ability to really connect,” said Adam. “His lawyers now have to look at the facts themselves. How do you play the facts themselves when these jurors come and believe that he did it? “

In general, the judicial sense of duty of the jurors is powerful, especially if Richter tells them that the jury is probably the best way to give the country back to the country as military service. Adam said that after the jury saw during the trial that someone is at stake for someone, it is possible that they put their pre-versed ideas aside- in both high and low-profiling cases.

According to Terry Ekl, who recently represented a former public prosecutor from Cook County, who was acquitted in an “unprecedented” process, crimo's lawyers can confront these opinions directly. If he were Crimo's lawyer, he would emphasize the jury in the opening declaration that they agreed to remain open and that the accused was considered innocent.

“You know, you promised us, you have promised us under oath that you would follow this instruction. We stick to it – this is your sacred duty in this case, ”said Ekl. “I would probably repeat that again and again.”

Due to the terrible nature of the shootout, however, the jury probably know more about this case than most. Ekl said he was skeptical about the truthfulness of people when they say that they can ignore opinions that they have expressed.

In the next three to five weeks, the jury is expected to hear evidence against crimo, including testimonies of many of the 48 people who have been wounded. He is accused of climbing a shop in Highland Park in the city center during an Independence Day Parade and shooting into the crowd with a powerful rifle. Crimo wore a cladding to escape in chaos, said the authorities, but a police officer in North Chicago arrested him when he drove about eight hours later.

He is charged with dozens of crimes due to the first degree murder and has a life in prison without probation if it is convicted. Crimo declined in June, with a guilty objection in which his lawyers worked, a reversal in the 11th hour, which disappointed the victims and their families, who were gathered in the courthouse.

Crimo refused to visit most jury selection. Judge Victoria Rossetti has repeatedly informed him that the procedure would stop regardless of his participation. Another action is not present that does not help his case, said Ekl. If Crimo does not appear for the process, the jury would probably perceive it as it doesn't matter, added Ekl.

If Crimo continues to skip the process, Ekl said, Rossetti would probably tell the jury something that “will not be with us today. You should not consider this in any way. “

“So you have a man who does not work together, looks terrible in front of a jury and has no obvious viable defense. Really rough, ”said Ekl. “If you are a defender and the guy does not have to commit yourself, you have to try the case, but that doesn't mean winning a chance at all.”

Originally published: March 1, 2025 at 5:01 p.m. CST