news
With jury choice underway for her second homicide trial within the dying of Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, attorneys for Karen Read are interesting a decrease court docket’s ruling that she will not be dealing with double jeopardy to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.
Learn’s first trial ended with a mistrial final yr, however her attorneys have argued that the jury agreed unanimously that she was not responsible of two of the three expenses, together with essentially the most critical of homicide, and that protecting these on the books for her second trial is unconstitutionally inserting her on trial twice for a similar crime.
This settlement was unannounced at trial, nonetheless.
In accordance with the 149-page submitting, Learn’s attorneys are presenting the excessive court docket with two questions:
- Whether or not a last and unanimous, however unannounced, choice by a jury following trial that the prosecution did not show a defendant responsible of a charged offense constitutes an acquittal precluding retrial underneath the Double Jeopardy Clause.
- Whether or not a defendant who produces credible proof of such a last, unanimous, and unannounced acquittal is entitled to a post-trial listening to to substantiate the actual fact of such acquittal.
KAREN READ AND JOHN O’KEEFE: INSIDE EVOLUTION OF BOSTON MURDER MYSTERY SINCE JULY MISTRIAL
Officer John O’Keefe poses for his official headshot. O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Reed, is at the moment on trial for homicide after he was discovered useless outdoors a Massachusetts dwelling in January 2022. (Boston Police Division)
The Fifth Modification ensures constitutional safety from dealing with double jeopardy – trial or punishment for a similar offense twice.
After a mistrial, a retrial can usually proceed – however Learn’s attorneys argue the distinctive circumstances in her case place her underneath double jeopardy on the two charges jurors agreed on however didn’t announce.
GO HERE FOR FULL COVERAGE OF THE 2ND KAREN READ TRIAL
Karen Learn and John O’Keefe pose in an undated photograph. (Karen Learn)
Over days of stalled deliberations, jurors repeatedly despatched notes to the court docket explaining they had been at an deadlock, and Choose Beverly Cannone instructed them to maintain making an attempt. Deliberations started on June 25, 2024. By July 1, with jurors nonetheless deadlocked, the decide declared a mistrial.
Of their enchantment, Learn’s attorneys mentioned the decide didn’t give counsel for both facet the chance to talk and dismissed the jury with out asking them in the event that they had been locked on all expenses or any expenses individually.
KAREN READ JURY SELECTION: DOZENS IN POOL ALREADY HAVE AN OPINION ON THE CASE
Karen Learn sits in court docket throughout jury choice at Norfolk County Superior Courtroom on Thursday, April 18, 2024 in Dedham, Massachusetts, for her first trial. (David McGlynn/New York Submit through AP, Pool)
The following day, a juror recognized as Juror A contacted Learn’s legal professional, Alan Jackson, and advised him that the panel had “unanimously agreed that Karen Learn will not be responsible of Depend 1 (second-degree homicide),” based on the lawsuit.
Textual content messages purportedly despatched from Juror B expressed comparable claims, based on the lawsuit. Jurors C and D additionally reached out to Learn’s crew with comparable variations of occasions, based on the submitting.
Moreover, at the very least one juror mentioned it in a voicemail for prosecutors.
FOLLOW THE FOX TRUE CRIME TEAM ON X
Karen Learn smiles as protection legal professional David Yannetti speaks to reporters in entrance of Norfolk Superior Courtroom after the decide declared a mistrial after jurors had been unable to succeed in a verdict following a two-month trial on Monday, July 1, 2024 in Dedham, Massachusetts. (AP Photograph/Steven Senne)
“It was not responsible on second diploma,” Juror B wrote in a textual content shared with one other Learn legal professional, David Yannetti. “And cut up in half for the second cost…I assumed the prosecution didn’t show the case. Nobody thought she hit him on objective and even thought she hit him on objective.”
In a telephone dialog, Learn’s attorneys declare Juror B clarified the second sentence of that textual content, saying it ought to have learn, “Nobody thought she hit him on objective and even knew that she had hit him.”
SIGN UP TO GET TRUE CRIME NEWSLETTER
Choose Beverly Cannone seems over the decision slip the jurors should fill out once they attain a verdict in Karen Learn’s homicide trial on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger through AP, Pool)
The homicide cost was “off the desk,” based on the submitting, and Juror A additionally mentioned jurors agreed that Learn was not responsible of leaving the scene.
Learn was arrested on expenses of drunken driving, manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident, and later indicted for the extra cost of second-degree murder after she allegedly backed into O’Keefe outdoors a celebration and drove away, leaving him to die on the bottom in a snowstorm.
If her enchantment is profitable, she would simply face the manslaughter cost.
Karen Learn seems together with her attorneys, Alan Jackson and David Yannetti, through the first day of jury choice at Norfolk Superior Courtroom on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Nancy Lane/The Boston Herald through AP, Pool)
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
Appellate courts in Massachusetts have already denied her request, discovering that as a result of no verdict had been learn in court docket, she was not acquitted of any expenses and isn’t dealing with double jeopardy. Her authorized crew turned to the nation’s highest court docket this week, asking them to assessment a decrease court docket’s choice and for a post-trial listening to on the matter.
Learn may face life in jail if convicted of second-degree homicide at her second trial, which started Tuesday. She has pleaded not responsible and denied involvement in O’Keefe’s dying, together with her protection presenting her as a scapegoat being framed by the alleged true killers.
