Self-Defense? After Rittenhouse, Calls to Drop Murder Charges Against Black Teen Chrystul Kizer

🤔 As millions continue to express shock and disappointment over Kyle Rittenhouse’s recent acquittal, others are focusing on Chrystul Kizer.

Kizer is currently awaiting trial after admitting she killed her sexual abuser in self-defense in 2018. Kizer, who was 17 at the time of the killing, says she set her abuser’s house on fire and stole his car. The alleged abuser, Randall P. Volar III, was also shot in the head.

Since Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted under claims of self-defense for fatally shooting two people and wounding a third during racial justice protests last year in Kenosha, Wisconsin, another case in the city is drawing new national attention. Human rights advocates are calling for charges to be dropped in the case of Chrystul Kizer, who faces homicide and other charges for killing her white sex trafficker in 2018 after he drugged her and tried to rape her when she was just 17 years old. Court records show police knew Randall Volar had a history of sexually abusing underage Black girls. Although the court initially ruled Kizer could not use a self-defense argument, an appellate court reversed the decision, and the Wisconsin Supreme Court will now consider the ruling. “It has huge ramifications for her, but it also has a huge potential impact for other victims of trafficking,” says reporter Anne Branigin. “We have a very clear case where we are not receiving the same support, the same outcry from folks who got behind Kyle Rittenhouse to defend this young Black woman,” says Wisconsin state Representative David Bowen. “She was trying to defend herself to get out of the sex trafficking she was being abused with.”