After 13 days of the testimony and deliberations in Wisconsin, the homicide trial of Kyle Rittenhouse has ended with his acquittal on all counts.

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The White House has now released an official statement from President Joe Biden, a lengthier response to the jury verdict in Kenosha:

"While the verdict in Kenosha will leave many Americans feeling angry and concerned, myself included, we must acknowledge that the jury has spoken," he wrote.

"I ran on a promise to bring Americans together, because I believe that what unites us is far greater than what divides us," he continued.

President Biden added that the country's wounds will not heal overnight and every American must be "treated equally, with fairness and dignity, under the law".

He concluded with a plea for people to "express their views peacefully, consistent with the rule of law. Violence and destruction of property have no place in our democracy."

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President Joe Biden has commented on the Rittenhouse verdict.

Shortly after returning to the White House from the Walter Reed Medical Center in Maryland, the president said he stood by what the jury had concluded.

"The jury system works and we have to abide by it," he said.

Biden, the oldest US president to take office, had undergone a routine health check on the eve of his 79th birthday.

The president had earlier been criticised for comments made in 2020 in which he appeared compare the actions of Kyle Rittenhouse to those of "white supremacists and militia groups".

"They need to stand down and not add to the violence in a number of these cities, as we saw in Kenosha," the then-presidential candidate said at the time in a Twitter post.

Asked about Biden's old comments earlier this week, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki warned against "vigilantes patrolling our communities with assault weapons".

"We shouldn't have opportunists corrupting peaceful protests by rioting and burning down the communities they claim to represent anywhere in the country," she told a press conference on Monday.

The governor of Wisconsin, the US state where the fatal shootings took place, says now is not the time for division.

"I've seen the pain and frustration of so many and we must remain steadfast in our commitment to ending violence in our communities," Tony Evers says in a statement posted to Twitter.

He says that no outcome would have brought back the lives of the victims, just as "no verdicts can heal the wounds" of the families involved.

Evers adds that it's "time to move forward, together... to build the sort of future we want for our state".

Meanwhile, former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker said on Twitter that he is praying that such violence does not happen again, adding that "all of us who knew what actually happened in Kenosha last year assumed this would be the verdict".

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The prosecution's case against Kyle Rittenhouse was handled by the office of the Kenosha County District Attorney.

Assistant district attorneys Thomas Binger and James Kraus argued in the courtroom on behalf of the state.

In a brief statement, District Attorney Michael Graveley wrote: "We respect the jury verdict based on three and a half days of careful deliberations."

He noted that "issues regarding the privilege of self-defence remain highly contentious in our current times" but urged calm.

"We ask that all members of the public accept the verdicts peacefully and not resort to violence."

Professor John Gross of the University of Wisconsin Law School is an expert on criminal defence and trial practice in the state.

He told the BBC that the verdict - an acquittal on all counts - was hardly surprising.

"The self-defence claim was going to be something that the prosecution was not going to be able to overcome in this case and they have to disprove it beyond a reasonable doubt," he said.

The key weakness for them, he said, was that "some of the prosecution's witnesses supported the argument that he was acting in self-defence".

Gross noted that he knew jurors would not rush into a verdict on the case because they are all residents of Kenosha and knew how important the case was to the community.

"They knew that, whatever verdict they render, they were going to have to go back to their friends and family, and explain why they did what they did," he said.

But, with so many people likely to be unhappy over the acquittal, Gross said Rittenhouse could face a civil lawsuit in the future, filed either by those he shot at or by their families.

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When black Americans are killed by police and street protests simmer, the go-to lawyer is Ben Crump.

Nicknamed "black America's attorney general", the Florida lawyer represents the families of some of the most high-profile victims of police violence, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and - the man whose shooting was the cause of the unrest in Kenosha - Jacob Blake.

Reacting to the verdict, Crump slammed the "spectacle of a trial" and called it "yet another example of the two justice systems at work in America".

"From the outset, this case has pulled back the curtain on the profound cracks in our justice system," he said.

"If we were talking about a black man, the conversation and outcome would be starkly different," he said in a lengthy statement.

Crump added that he would pray the verdict is "an outlier on our path to a more just system, and not a signal of retreat backwards. Because, we simply can't afford it".

Attorney Mark Richards says that his office received "too many death threats to count" amid the trial of his client Kyle Rittenhouse.

Richards said he knew the case would be big but not "this big", but he did not feel like televising the trial affected how he behaved.

He said the legal team had to work to overcome early versions of the incidents that night in Kenosha, which were not the "true story".

As such, he felt "thankful in more ways than one" that the jury had the chance to hear what really happened, including from his client's own mouth.

Richards said that he had never had to wait so long for a jury verdict in his career and it was "torture".

And when the verdict finally came in, he said Rittenhouse had two words for him and co-counsel Corey Chirafasi: "Thank you."

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Lead defence attorney Mark Richards is now speaking to reporters outside the Kenosha courthouse.

Richards said Kyle Rittenhouse was relieved and currently headed home: "He wants to get on with his life."

"He wished none of this would have ever happened," he said.

The lawyer noted that Rittenhouse is suffering from post-traumatic stress (PTSD) because of the incidents and has been in counselling.

He added that he believed the teen's tears on the witness stand to be genuine.

"I know Kyle Rittenhouse and I know what he feels."

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The parents of 26-year-old Anthony Huber, who was fatally shot by Kyle Rittenhouse, have said today's verdict means "there is no accountability" for the person who killed their son.

"It sends the unacceptable message that armed civilians can show up in any town, incite violence, and then use the danger they have created to justify shooting people in the street," John Huber and Karen Bloom said in a joint statement.

The couple added that they rejected that message and that they expected "more of our laws, our officials and our justice system".

Image source, Reuters

After the verdicts were read out at the Kenosha County Courthouse, Judge Bruce Schroeder thanked the jury for their service and for reaching a decision following more than three days of deliberations.

"All of you – I couldn't have asked for a better jury to work with," he said.

"The verdicts themselves, just in terms of your attentiveness and the co-operation that you gave to us, justifies the confidence that the founders of our country placed in you."

The jury delivered the verdict today after over three days of deliberations.

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Attorneys for Kyle Rittenhouse have successfully argued that then 17-year-old acted in self-defence last year.

They claimed he came to Kenosha to protect businesses from civil unrest, not to harm anyone, and pointed out how he cleaned graffiti and provided medical assistance to people that day.

They also sought to show that each of the three men he shot had either threatened him or tried to take his gun from him.

Prosecutors had to disprove beyond a reasonable doubt that the teen acted in self-defence.

Jurors had to decide if that use of self-defence was objectively reasonable under the circumstances and if Rittenhouse sincerely believed he was in danger of death or harm.

Read more on the legal standard that led to the teen's acquittal.

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Kyle Rittenhouse's trial was arguably the most high-profile homicide case in Wisconsin history. It has been closely watched across the nation.

Let's take a quick look at some of the key moments:

• A 20-person jury panel of Kenosha residents was picked in just one day, on 1 November.

• On the witness stand, Gaige Grosskreutz - who was wounded by Rittenhouse - acknowledged that Rittenhouse only fired at him after he lunged at him with a pistol pointed at him.

• Rittenhouse testified in his own defence, breaking down in tears as he provided his most detailed account of his side of the story. He said: "I didn't do anything wrong. I defended myself."
• Judge Schroeder delivered a fiery rebuke of lead prosecutor Thomas Binger in the courtroom after Binger broke pre-trial agreements during his questioning.
• Defence attorneys for Rittenhouse had sought a mistrial. Schroeder ultimately did not rule on the motion.
• After 26 hours of deliberation, a 12-person jury delivered its unanimous verdict: not guilty on all counts.

Rittenhouse began to choke up, fell to the floor and then hugged one of his attorneys upon hearing the verdict, according to the Associated Press news agency.

He was then led out of the courtroom, after the jury was dismissed.

Wisconsin Lieutenant Governor Mandela Barnes reacted angrily to the outcome.

“Over the last few weeks, many dreaded the outcome we just witnessed,” Barnes was quoted by the AP.

"The presumption of innocence until proven guilty is what we should expect from our judicial system, but that standard is not always applied equally. We have seen so many black and brown youth killed, only to be put on trial posthumously, while the innocence of Kyle Rittenhouse was virtually demanded by the judge."

Image source, Pool/Getty Images

Nomia Iqbal
BBC News, Washington

As the verdict was released several cars drove past tooting their horns and cheering and shouting "Free Kyle!" and “We love the second amendment”.

On the court steps Jacob Blake’s uncle was in tears. He told me he was shocked at the verdict. He said he believed that if Rittenhouse had been a black teenager "police would have shot him dead”.

Criminal defence attorney Lara Yeretsian has previously represented high-profile clients including Scott Peterson, convicted of murdering his pregnant wife in 2004, and singer Michael Jackson.

She told the BBC that prosecutors "should have focused on the strongest parts of the case, instead of trying to build up the weakest parts of the case".

"The bottom line is the prosecution didn't have enough here. It blew up in their face, including their own witnesses," she said.

"Even the one person who could speak on behalf of the three [who were shot] said he pointed the gun at Rittenhouse."

Yeretsian said a better argument would have been to portray Rittenhouse as the aggressor, pointing the gun at people and scaring them off.

"He would have done better to talk about whether the force used was proportionate to the threat," she noted. "It was hard to pretend that he didn't have the right to defend himself."

But she noted that she expected the verdict because "putting aside how you feel, from a criminal defence perspective, it was a very strong case for the defence".

"I thought it was going to be a quick acquittal, but as more time passed, the possibility of a mistrial was crossing my mind."

US teenager Kyle Rittenhouse - who shot and killed two men during racial justice protests last year - has been cleared of homicide after claiming self-defence.

The 18-year-old killed two men and wounded a third on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, on 25 August.

During the high-profile and politically divisive trial, his defence said he had feared for his life. Prosecutors argued he was looking for trouble that night.

National Guard troops have been sent to the city amid fears of unrest.

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