This is tough to examine because this is entirely introspective; but, while I can celebrate acquittals I find it impossible to celebrate just about any conviction.
Yeah, sometimes, guilty people get off. That doesn't seem to happen often and, no, Rittenhouse isn't a guilty person who got off. Despite everything that we have built into our criminal justice system that's designed to place a high burden on the prosecution, I force myself to look at updates from The Innocence Project and the like and get reminded every day that innocent people are being released after decades in prison or, in the worse cases, being executed for a crimes that they very well may not have committed.
I've also realized how thin my understanding of criminal cases has been, how the media can manipulate people (myself included), and how much more information can emerge during a trial, if you pay attention, that can change everything.
I thought that Rittenhouse was not guilty before the trial as and the new information introduced during the trial made him more clearly not guilty. I went into the McMichaels' trial pretty sure that they were guilty and, although there were some damning details and clarifications that made the case against them stronger, there were a few details that emerged that raised enough doubt in my mind that I believe that, if I were on the jury, I would have voted not guilty on the malice murder charge. All three would still be in prison for the rest of their lives if the jury found exactly the way that I think; but, I have some quibbles with that one verdict.
Aside from all of that, lets face it, we all draw opinions with a significant amount of ignorance when it comes to any case that draws media attention and elicits an emotional response. What we believe or want shouldn't matter. No acquittal or conviction should be rooted for because of the political statement it may make. Only the facts should matter. We should all be horrified by Kamala Harris's statement that she tried to make our justice system more equitable. Despite a terrible and disgusting record as a prosecutor, the criminal justice system shouldn't be about equity. This is something that must absolutely be focused on individuals and coldly on the facts.
I also think that I find something unpalatable about rooting for a person to be guilty. I do believe that, if not all of us, most of us are better than the worst thing we've ever done.
Am I certain beyond a reasonable doubt, even before the trial, that Henry Ruggs is guilty of drunk driving, accelerating to over 150 mph, and colliding with a car and killing a woman and her dog? Yeah, and he should be punished. Will I celebrate when he's convicted and sentenced? No. He has a daughter who might have a father in prison until she's older than I am.
Do I think that the people who killed Arbery should die in prison? Yeah, I still think I do. Am I going to celebrate this? No. This is just a tragedy all the way through. Travis McMichael has a son who will grow up with an absent father. Right and good are different words for a reason - they express different things.
I'm also not expressing too much sympathy for those who are correctly found guilty though I will say that I've met men who have committed murder and became good people during the quarter century they spent in prison. I just understand that criminals don't live in a vacuum and that, even when it's entirely correct to remove criminals from society for a certain amount of time or for life, there are still innocent people who are irrevocably hurt by that.
I can say with complete honesty that there are plenty of guilty verdicts that I've heard, including today's, that I can say that I think are right and proper and that I was relieved. I still won't celebrate.