OAN Staff Michaelangelo Hernandez
12:40 PM – Sunday, August 11, 2024
The defense in the murder trial of Massachusetts woman Karen Read has argued to have her case thrown out as prosecutors push back on the proposal.
Defense attorneys for 44-year-old Read are arguing for the dismissal of two of the charges against her, including murder.
Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe after a night of drinking, and leaving him to die in front of another officer’s yard in a snowstorm in January 2022.
“They have to meet the burden of demonstrating to the court that they gave you all of the opportunities to the declaration of a mistrial,” defense lawyer Marty Weinberg said. “And they shouldn’t want us to admit that a search for justice in this courthouse where we don’t want somebody who’s found innocent has to face a second trial for the very same offense.”
The defense stood before a judge on Friday, claiming they had evidence that the jury was willing to acquit her on some of the counts but became deadlocked on the manslaughter charge, causing the judge to declare a mistrial back in July.
The defense is arguing for a dismissal, claiming that if prosecutors retry Read, it would be unconstitutional because there is no new evidence.
Weinberg was quoted saying “order a hearing judge, don’t make Ms. Read the first person in the history of the commonwealth to face re-prosecution for murder by the same prosecutors who tried once and failed.”
However, prosecutors argued that tossing the charges out was not allowed and that the jury delivered no such verdict as they left all boxes on the verdict form blank.
“Simply put, Your Honor, what council is proposing, as far as what the court should do, is prohibited by the rules, is prohibited by the law, is prohibited by the development of case law over the decades and centuries as to what is permitted. Certainly, the Commonwealth, nor anyone wants to try someone who’s been acquitted by the jury of his peers or retry them for the same offense,” prosecutor Adam Lally said. “That’s not what happened. There was no verdict returned by this jury.”
Prosecutors also pushed back on a proposal from the defense council to round the jurors back up or reach out to specific jurors to get sworn statements about how they deliberated.
The hearing on Friday ended without a decision. If there are no disruptions to the schedule of the case, a second trial is set to begin on the 27th of January.
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