Current:Home > NewsProsecutors ask Massachusetts’ highest court to allow murder retrial for Karen Read -Quantum Capital Pro
Prosecutors ask Massachusetts’ highest court to allow murder retrial for Karen Read
View
Date:2025-04-15 01:48:46
BOSTON (AP) — Prosecutors have called on the state’s highest court to allow them to retry Karen Read for murder in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, arguing against defense claims that jurors had reached a verdict against some of her charges before the judge declared a mistrial.
Read is accused of ramming into John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in January 2022. Read’s attorneys argue she is being framed and that other law enforcement officers are responsible for O’Keefe’s death. A judge declared a mistrial in June after finding that jurors couldn’t reach agreement. A retrial on the same charges is set to begin in January.
In a brief filed late Wednesday to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, prosecutors wrote that there’s no basis for dismissing the charges of second degree murder and leaving the scene of the accident.
There was “no viable alternative to a mistrial,” they argued in the brief, noting that the jury said three times that it was deadlocked before a mistrial was declared. Prosecutors said the “defendant was afforded a meaningful opportunity to be heard on any purported alternative.”
“The defendant was not acquitted of any charge because the jury did not return, announce, and affirm any open and public verdicts of acquittal,” they wrote. “That requirement is not a mere formalism, ministerial act, or empty technicality. It is a fundamental safeguard that ensures no juror’s position is mistaken, misrepresented, or coerced by other jurors.”
In the defense brief filed in September, Read’s lawyers said five of the 12 jurors came forward after her mistrial saying they were deadlocked only on a manslaughter count, and they had agreed unanimously — without telling the judge — that she wasn’t guilty on the other counts. They argued that it would be unconstitutional double jeopardy to try her again on the counts of murder and leaving the scene of an accident resulting in death.
Oral arguments will be heard from both sides on Nov. 6.
In August, the trial judge ruled that Read can be retried on all three counts. “Where there was no verdict announced in open court here, retrial of the defendant does not violate the principle of double jeopardy,” Judge Beverly Cannone wrote.
Read’s attorney, Martin Weinberg, argued that under Cannone’s reasoning, even if all 12 jurors were to swear in affidavits that they reached a final and unanimous decision to acquit, this wouldn’t be sufficient for a double jeopardy challenge. “Surely, that cannot be the law. Indeed, it must not be the law,” Weinberg wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union supported the defense in an amicus brief. If the justices don’t dismiss the charges, the ACLU said the court should at least “prevent the potential for injustice by ordering the trial court to conduct an evidentiary hearing and determine whether the jury in her first trial agreed to acquit her on any count.”
“The trial court had a clear path to avoid an erroneous mistrial: simply ask the jurors to confirm whether a verdict had been reached on any count,” the ACLU wrote in its brief. “Asking those questions before declaring a mistrial is permitted — even encouraged — by Massachusetts rules. Such polling serves to ensure a jury’s views are accurately conveyed to the court, the parties, and the community — and that defendants’ related trial rights are secure.”
Prosecutors said Read, a former adjunct professor at Bentley College, and O’Keefe, a 16-year member of the Boston police, had been drinking heavily before she dropped him off at a party at the home of Brian Albert, a fellow Boston officer. They said she hit him with her SUV before driving away. An autopsy found O’Keefe had died of hypothermia and blunt force trauma.
The defense portrayed Read as the victim, saying O’Keefe was actually killed inside Albert’s home and then dragged outside. They argued that investigators focused on Read because she was a “convenient outsider” who saved them from having to consider law enforcement officers as suspects.
The lead investigator, State Trooper Michael Proctor, was relieved of duty after the trial revealed he’d sent vulgar texts to colleagues and family, calling Read a “whack job” and telling his sister he wished Read would “kill herself.” He said his emotions had gotten the better of him.
veryGood! (753)
Related
- Sonya Massey's father decries possible release of former deputy charged with her death
- Rays SS Taylor Walls says gesture wasn’t meant as Trump endorsement and he likely won’t do it again
- Team USA Women's Basketball Showcase: Highlights from big US win over Germany
- Fans drop everything, meet Taylor Swift in pouring rain at Hamburg Eras Tour show
- Trump issues order to ban transgender troops from serving openly in the military
- New owner nears purchase of Red Lobster after chain announced bankruptcy and closures
- Last Sunday was the hottest day on Earth in all recorded history, European climate agency reports
- Monday is the hottest day recorded on Earth, beating Sunday’s record, European climate agency says
- Macy's says employee who allegedly hid $150 million in expenses had no major 'impact'
- New York’s Marshes Plagued by Sewage Runoff and Lack of Sediment
Ranking
- Chuck Scarborough signs off: Hoda Kotb, Al Roker tribute legendary New York anchor
- Bachelor Nation's Ashley Iaconetti Gives Birth, Welcomes Baby No. 2 With Jared Haibon
- Maine will decide on public benefit of Juniper Ridge landfill by August
- Tesla’s 2Q profit falls 45% to $1.48 billion as sales drop despite price cuts and low-interest loans
- 'Most Whopper
- Russia and China push back against U.S. warnings over military and economic forays in the melting Arctic
- Kamala IS brat: These are some of the celebrities throwing their support behind Kamala Harris' campaign for president
- Keanu Reeves Shares Why He Thinks About Death All the Time
Recommendation
NFL Week 15 picks straight up and against spread: Bills, Lions put No. 1 seed hopes on line
Haason Reddick continues to no-show Jets with training camp holdout, per reports
Why the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics are already an expensive nightmare for many locals and tourists
John Mayall, tireless and influential British blues pioneer, dies at 90
Sarah J. Maas books explained: How to read 'ACOTAR,' 'Throne of Glass' in order.
Elon Musk Says Transgender Daughter Vivian Was Killed by Woke Mind Virus
Illinois woman sentenced to 2 years in prison for sending military equipment to Russia
Salt Lake City celebrates expected announcement that it will host the 2034 Winter Olympics