Karen Read, the Massachusetts woman accused in the death of her police officer boyfriend, has filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking an immediate stay of her high-profile retrial.
As jury selection slowly dragged on in Dedham, Massachusetts, on Monday, Read asked to pause the proceedings so the justices could review whether her retrial was unconstitutional.
Read’s defense claimed that their client’s constitutional rights are being violated under the double jeopardy clause after multiple jurors allegedly came forward claiming she had been acquitted on two of the three charges.
The Supreme Court has not yet made a decision on whether or not to drop those charges, which prompted Read’s team to request that her trial be delayed.
“Read respectfully submits that the Double Jeopardy protections at stake in her petition are simply too important to force Read to stand trial for a murder that she contends a prior jury of her peers already acquitted her of,” Read’s attorneys wrote.
“Read’s Petition contends that her scheduled retrial on two of the three counts pending against her, including a charge of second-degree murder, will violate the Double Jeopardy Clause because the jury in her first trial reached a final and unanimous, but unannounced, decision that she is not guilty of those charges,” according to the filing.
Read, 45, is accused of striking her Boston police officer boyfriend John O’Keefe with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snowstorm in 2022 outside a house party in the town of Canton. Her attorneys have said O’Keefe was actually killed by someone else, possibly another law enforcement agent who was at the party, and that she was framed.
At her trial last year, the judge declared a mistrial after the jury deadlocked following five days of deliberations.
After the trial, several jurors came forward to say the group was unanimous in finding Read not guilty of the most serious charge, second-degree murder, and a lesser charge.
Despite attempts by Read’s lawyers to get those charges dismissed, she will face the same counts as she did at her first trial. They also failed to have the entire case tossed, arguing governmental misconduct.
Read’s second trial began with jury selection on April 1. She has pleaded not guilty to the charges of first-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
After a night out drinking, prosecutors say Read dropped off O’Keefe at the house party just after midnight. As she made a three-point turn, prosecutors say, she struck O’Keefe before driving away. She returned hours later to find him in a snowbank.
As they did at the first trial, prosecutors will try to convince jurors that Read’s actions were intentional. They are expected to call witnesses who will describe how the couple's relationship had begun to sour before O'Keefe's death.
Jury selection began a week ago and only 10 jurors have been seated. Lawyers are seeking to seat 16 jurors, with four serving as alternates. On Monday, no new jurors were added after bringing in 45 candidates.
There's no timetable for the Supreme Court to rule on the emergency petition, ABC News reported.
“Petitioner respectfully urges the Court to stay jury selection or, alternatively, the swearing of the jury in this matter until this Court has ruled on Read’s Petition,” her attorneys wrote.
