Chrystul Kizer (appearing here with her attorneys in 2019) is arguing that it was in self-defense when she killed the man who sexually abused her.
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Chrystul Kizer (appearing here with her attorneys in 2019) is arguing that it was in self-defense when she killed the man who sexually abused her.
The Washington Post / Washington Post via Getty Images
The result of Kyle Rittenhouse is acquitted In Kenosha, Wis., last week, advocates are returning to the case of teenager Chrystul Kizer, who also alleges it was an act of self-defense when she killed her adult sex abuser, set her on fire. home and stole his car in 2018.
Kizer, then 17, was charged with shooting Randall P. Volar III in the head; Volar was previously arrest of child sexual assault.
Kizer was released from prison in June 2020 after groups like the Chicago Community Bond Fund raised money to pay her $400,000 in bonds. She is still awaiting trial.
Prosecutors say the murder was premeditated. But what’s remarkable in this case is that Kizer’s attorneys are making a self-defeating argument that Yes never was used in a previous state homicide.
Initially, Judge David Wilk of Kenosha District Court said that Kizer could not use affirmative defense in this case because it involved the murder. But Wilk’s decision was overturned by an appeals court, which ruled that, under a state regulations, Kizer can argue “affirmative defense” if her attorney can prove that her actions against Volar were a direct result of the human trafficking she experienced.
Wisconsin’s Supreme Court is currently reviewing the case.
What are the protesters saying?
Protesters spent the weekend naming Rittenhouse’s victims as well as Kizer’s, Wisconsin Public Radio reported.
Their argument was that if Rittenhouse had successfully argued his case and claimed the right to defend himself, the Kizer case would have had the same outcome.
“Chrystul Kizer was in this building [Kenosha County Courthouse] also support her justice”, Democratic State Representative David Bowen speak. “And we didn’t hear anyone. And we didn’t hear anyone making noise for Kyle Rittenhouse.”
Protesters protest against Kyle Rittenhouse’s ruling at Civic Center Park in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday.
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Protesters protest against Kyle Rittenhouse’s ruling at Civic Center Park in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday.
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The Kizer case also provides a test of how the law can sometimes not be applied equally to everyone, especially black girls and women like Kizer.
Sharlyn Grace, former executive director of the Chicago Community Bond Fund, told Wisconsin Public Radio last year that the Kizer case in particular is important to highlight.
Grace speak.
“Because of the fact that Chrystul Kizer was not kept safe by the police nor prosecuted and detained, and in fact, after she was forced to defend herself and she chose to survive, she then were further harmed by those systems.”
Legal argument and why it may or may not work
Julius Kim, a lawyer and former criminal prosecutor in Wisconsin, said that invoking an affirmative defense would essentially remove the burden of proof from the prosecution.
If the defense can prove that Kizer was a victim of sex trafficking, it falls under the obligation to “reasonably prove that she was not a victim of human sex trafficking or that the crime the evil she committed was not Kim told NPR.
While opponents are pitching Kizer’s case in the context of the Rittenhouse trial, Kim points to one key difference: videos played during the Rittenhouse trial show the “inaccuracy” of the relationship. dangerous,” he said, and that kind of element is missing in Kizer’s Case, since the state is argumentative that Kizer went to Volar’s house with the intention of killing him.
The defense argument is common with any violent melee, Kim said, but much less common when it comes to child sex trafficking cases, which often go unnoticed in the first place. Kizer was a “sympathetic defendant,” he said, and her case will eventually test whether the affirmative defense can be appropriate in a case. related to the murder.
