A state senator in Oklahoma City proposed a new law named after Kyle Rittenhouse in support of victims’ malicious prosecution.
The proposed law came after the 18-year-old’s acquittal of five felony charges after he shot three people in August 2020.
At the age of 17, Rittenhouse went to the Black Lives Matter protest in Wisconsin, which broke out after the shooting of Jacob Blake. The teenager fatally shot two men and wounded another person.
Despite all the backlash, Rittenhouse pleaded not guilty, claiming he had acted in self-defense after traveling across state lines.
On November 23, Oklahoma senator Nathan Dahm filed Senate Bill 1120 for ‘Kyle’s Law’ which aims to compensate victims of malicious prosecution.
According to Daily Wire, Senator Dahm, a Republican who is running for the US Senate, seeks to have any person who is ‘charged with murder’ but ‘found not guilty due to ‘justifiable homicide’ reimbursed for ‘all reasonable cost, including loss of wages, legal fees incurred, and other expenses involved in their defense’.
“When a homicide is determined to be justified and the accused establishes that they had sustained injury due to malicious prosecution, then that person will be awarded fair and just compensation,” Dahm’s statement reads.
“SB 1120 further states that in order to support a claim of malicious prosecution, the claimant must establish that the prosecution was instituted or instigated by the prosecutor and was without probable cause; that the prosecution had legally and finally been terminated in favor of the claimant; and that as a result of the criminal prosecution, the claimant sustained injury,” it added.
According to the proposed law, if the ‘motive for the prosecution was something other than a desire to bring an offender to justice, or that it was one with ill will or hatred, or wilfully done in a wanton or oppressive manner and in conscious disregard of the claimant’s rights, then ‘malice’ can be established.
“Kyle Rittenhouse should never have been charged,” Dahm said. “The video evidence from early on showed it was lawful self-defense.”
“It is our duty to protect the rights of the people we represent, and the right to self-defense is paramount,” he added. “This bill will ensure that what happened to Kyle Rittenhouse cannot happen to the people of Oklahoma.”