The American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Massachusetts (ACLU) is backing Karen Read in her appeal to the State’s Supreme Judicial Court to protect her from being retried on acquitted charges, according to a filing on Wednesday.
Read is accused of hitting and killing her Boston Police Officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, in a 2022 snowstorm. Her first trial ended in a mistrial in July, after the jury said they had reached an impasse.
In the months following, some jurors allegedly reported they had come to a consensus that Read was acquitted on two of the three charges levied against her, including murder. Read’s retrial is tentatively scheduled for January.
In Wednesday’s filing, the civil liberties union says the retrial would violate her constitutional rights, citing the Fifth Amendment, which prohibits someone from being tried on the same charge twice.
“A retrial on acquitted charges would violate the prohibition against double jeopardy — a critical right enshrined in the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution and Massachusetts common law,” the amicus brief read.
The ACLU also called Judge Beverly Cannone’s decision to declare a mistrial “hasty” and “did so without polling jurors to confirm they were deadlocked on all counts (or even asking the parties whether they consented to a mistrial or wanted the jurors polled),” according to the filing. “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. “Soon after that hasty mistrial declaration, multiple jurors reported that the jury had actually agreed to acquit Appellant on Counts 1 and 3—and so were only deadlocked on Count 2.”
Count 1 was 2nd-degree murder and Count 3 was leaving the scene of personal injury or death, which would leave Read only to face one charge of OUI/manslaughter.
The SJC is scheduled to hear the appeal on November 6.
The full amicus brief is available here:
ACLU files amicus brief backing Karen Read’s appeal to protect her against double jeopardy trial by Boston 25 Desk on Scribd
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