In the subsequent court hearing, the judge chooses not to dismiss the homicide accusations against Karen Read following a July hung jury.
reads woman allegedly crashing into john o'keefe with her SUV during a january 2022 snowstorm, abandoning him to face death's cold embrace. Her trial, spanning a lengthy two months, concluded in july with the jury proclaiming their inability to reach a consensus, leading to a mistrial being declared on the fifth day of deliberations by the judge.
The Honorable Judge Beverly Cannone's decision, communicated on a friday, renders the case ripe for a retrial commencing on the 27th of january next year.
The defense had put forth evidence suggesting that four jurors had unanimously declared reads not guilty on the charges of second-degree murder and abandonment following a deadly accident, but were deadlocked on the manslaughter charge. They contended that a re-trial on those two charges would constitute unlawful double jeopardy. They also disclosed that a juror had asserted that no one believed reads intentionally rammed into o'keefe or even perceived the incident as an intentional collision.
However, the judge countered that the jury had never brought their verdict to the court's attention while deliberating. "Given the absence of a verdict announced in open court, retrial of the defendant does not contravene the double jeopardy principle."
Several days prior, reads attorney, marty weinberg, had petitioned cannone to explore a variety of avenues to substantiate the jury's acquittal of reads on the two aforementioned charges.
Weinberg proposed questioning the jury anonymously to ascertain whether they had reached a verdict on all three counts or simply struggling to reach consensus on the remaining manslaughter charge. Alternatively, he suggested having the jurors execute confidential affidavits affirming that they had unanimously exonerated reads on the first and third counts.
The prosecution, in response, denounced the defense's proposition to dismiss charges of second-degree murder and abandonment following a deadly accident as an unsubstantiated, sensationalist post-trial claim stemming from hearsay, speculation, and inappropriate reliance upon the substance of the jury's deliberations.
Assistant District Attorney, adam lally, impassionedly urged cannone to reject the defense's motion in the hearing, arguing that the jury never indicated having reached a verdict on any of the charges, had explicit instructions on how to proceed to a verdict, and that the defense had been granted ample opportunity to contest the mistrial declaration.
The defense team argued that four jurors had unanimously declared "us" not guilty on the charges of second-degree murder and abandonment, but were deadlocked on the manslaughter charge. Later, during the retrial discussion, Weinberg proposed questioning the jury anonymously to ascertain if "us" had reached a verdict on all three counts.
