Photo courtesy of the Washington Post/ Twitter.
After Kyle Rittenhouse was acquitted in Kenosha, Wisc., after murdering two unarmed men, lawyers for Chrystul Kizer want justice. Kizer was a 17-year-old sex trafficking victim when she shot and killed her abuser, Randall Volar III, 34, in 2018.
Because a self-defense law in Wisconsin led to Rittenhouse being acquitted despite shooting and killing two people, advocates of 20-year-old Kizer are demanding that she be able to claim self-defense. The judge told
the teenager that she could not claim self-defense because she was a juvenile.The 20-year-old sex trafficking victim was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and several felonies for killing Volar. Kizer’s attorneys said that their client lashed out after years of sexual abuse from Volar, whom she met when she was 16. She is currently awaiting trial for Valor’s death and is facing life in prison.
Kizer’s attorneys plan to use a state law known as an affirmative defense to defend their client. An affirmative defense means Kizer acted directly due to being sex a trafficking victim. The Wisconsin Supreme Court is currently reviewing the decision.
Kizer shot and killed Volar in the head in June of 2018. The teenager also set his body on fire and took his car. She told authorities that Volar had sold her to other men for sex since she was 16-years-old.
She also told police that Volar would pin her to the floor to have sex. Volar filmed his debauchery and filmed himself having sex with other underage girls. Prosecutors in Kenosha made the ridiculous claim that Kizer killed Volar and burnt down his house because she wanted his car.
The Washington Post reported that prosecutors and the Kenosha police did have evidence that Volar abused Kizer and several more Black girls. A few months before his death, he was accused of drugging and threatening to kill a 15-year-old girl, who later called 911.
“Sometimes he goes to Milwaukee to find young girls,” read the police report.
Video evidence of his crimes, including a video of him abusing a 12-year-old girl, was found by police.
However, despite the evidence, Volar remained free for several months. Even though Kizer saved herself and other young girls from Valor’s depravity when she killed him, Kizer was charged with first-degree intentional homicide and arson.
Social media users also spoke up about the racial discrepancies between the two cases.
Sharlyn Grace is the Chicago Community Bond Fund’s former executive director and helped raise Kizer’s $400,000 bond. Grace said that it was the police who failed Kizer and left her no choice.
“The reality is that Chrystul Kizer was not kept safe by police and prosecution and incarceration. And, in fact,” she said. “After she was forced to defend herself and she chose to survive, she was then further harmed by those systems.”