Karen Read’s Lawyers: Jurors Were Ready to Acquit Her of Murder Before Mistrial
The jury “sharply divided” over Karen Read’s guilt in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend were only hopelessly deadlocked on a charge of manslaughter, and were unanimously poised to acquit her of murder and leaving the scene of a deadly accident before a judge declared a mistrial in the case, her lawyers claimed in a Monday court filing.
Read’s defense team, Alan Jackson and David Yannetti, are seeking to get both the latter charges thrown out. Retrying Read on those counts, they argued, would constitute a violation of double jeopardy protections, a constitutional clause that prohibits a person from being prosecuted twice for the same crime.
The lawyers said in their motion to dismiss that Jackson had been contacted last Tuesday, a day after the mistrial was declared, by a juror, who told him that the jury had unanimously agreed Read was not guilty of second-degree murder, nor of fleeing the crime scene.