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Karen Read brings double jeopardy appeal to U.S. Supreme Court
Read's lawyers say they have “powerful evidence that the jury in her prior trial found her not guilty” on two of her three criminal charges.
Karen Read is appealing to the nation’s highest court in her bid to get her second-degree murder charge and another count thrown out on double jeopardy grounds.
Read filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court this week, restating her claim that jurors in her first murder trial unanimously — but unofficially — agreed to acquit her on two of her three charges prior to Judge Beverly Cannone’s declaration of a mistrial.
More on Karen Read:
“In sum, the defense learned post-trial that the jury reached a verdict that was not announced,” the petition reads. “It was at least entitled to the opportunity to substantiate that fact in order to ensure Read is not unconstitutionally forced to stand trial for criminal offenses, including murder, of which she has already been acquitted.”
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Read is soon to be retried on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident in the 2022 death of her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe. Jury selection for her second trial began Tuesday.
“Read is facing re-prosecution … by the same prosecutor for the very same offenses — murder and leaving the scene — despite powerful evidence that the jury in her prior trial found her not guilty,” her lawyers argued.
Read’s Supreme Court appeal may be something of a long shot; the court receives approximately 7,000 to 8,000 petitions for a writ of certiorari each term and only grants and hears oral arguments in about 80 cases, according to its website. The state’s trial court and Supreme Judicial Court have already rejected Read’s appeal, as have the lower federal courts.
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Prosecutors allege Read, 45, drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into O’Keefe while dropping him off at a house party in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022. Her lawyers contend she was framed in a widespread conspiracy among law enforcement and witnesses.
Cannone declared a mistrial July 1 when jurors reported they were “starkly divided” in their views even after days of deliberation. Before long, however, Read’s lawyers said they heard from several jurors — four directly, one indirectly — that the jury was only deadlocked on the manslaughter charge, and had actually voted to acquit her of the other two counts. They asked Cannone to dismiss the two charges or bring the jury back for a post-trial hearing to confirm those claims; she declined to do so.
Read’s lawyers repeated the request in their Supreme Court petition.
“Such inquiry in no way intrudes on the deliberative process of the jury,” they argued. “Such an inquiry instead honors the jury service which the trial court described as ‘extraordinary’ rather than rendering irrelevant the efforts of at least four jurors to disclose that there was not an impasse on all three counts, as contrasted to only one count.”
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Court officials have until May 5 to respond to Read’s petition.
Read Karen Read’s Supreme Court petition:
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