Karen Read's attorneys putting pressure on prosecution to not retry case, legal analyst says
CANTON - On Wednesday, lawyers for Karen Read said they've heard from another juror, claiming the panel voted to acquit her of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of an accident with injury or death.
The defense's latest filing is being used as more evidence to support their motion to dismiss the two charges, saying it would violate the double jeopardy clause of the U.S. Constitution.
On Monday, Read's team filed a motion to dismiss, saying a juror and two informants told them they would have found her not guilty on those charges too.
Read's attorneys say the jury was deadlocked on the manslaughter charge.
Protest outside Norfolk District Attorney's office
The filing on Wednesday came as the ever-persistent Karen Read supporters were back outside the Norfolk County District Attorney's Office, this time calling for Michael Morrissey not to retry the high-profile murder case.
"Now we have the jurors are coming out one by one and everything is not on the up and up and I think we need to see where it goes," said supporter Jessica Finch Reid.
In their push to have Karen Read's second-degree murder charge dropped in the death of her Boston Police officer boyfriend John O'Keefe, Read's attorneys say another juror has come forward since the dramatic mistrial, saying the jury was ready to acquit Read on two of the three charges she faced: second degree murder and leaving the scene of an accident.
In the filing Wednesday, Read's defense said the unnamed juror said, "Many of the jurors appeared uncomfortable with how things ended, wondering is anyone going to know that we acquitted [Karen Read] on count 1 and 3? No one ever asked about those counts."
But in the jury's notes to Judge Beverly Cannone, they never indicated they were close to deciding a verdict on any of the three charges.
One of the notes read in part saying, "the deep division is not due to a lack of effort or diligence but rather a sincere adherence to our individual principals and moral convictions."
Legal analyst says outcome would have been the same
WBZ legal analyst Jennifer Roman says the jury is not supposed to divulge that information.
Roman says the jury must find a unanimous verdict on each charge, so the mistrial outcome would have been the same.
"You have to be unanimous on all charges or none of the charges," said Roman. "So, the defense can't pick and choose which charges Judge Cannone enters a verdict on... and the defense knows that. It's really a strategy to try to put some pressure on the prosecution to not retry this case."
"It's unusual for the defense to come in and say that to a judge, but it's also unusual to have jurors come out after the trial and say, 'well we want to tell you what actually happened in there,'" added Roman.
The DA's Office says it will look at the motion to dismiss, anticipating a response and look forward to picking a new trial date at the next hearing on July 22nd.
