The U.S. Supreme Court has reportedly denied the double jeopardy appeal of Karen Read and will not hear her lawyer’s case as she faces a retrial for having allegedly killed her boyfriend in January 2022, ABC News reported Monday.
Read’s first Boston-area trial ended in a hung jury and a mistrial. Her lawyers had appealed to the Supreme Court that a retrial would have violated the Constitution’s restriction against double jeopardy: being tried twice for the same crime.
Her lawyers argued the hung jurors allegedly agreed on acquittal for two charges in her first trial, but those allegations came from statements after the trial and not in actual court proceedings.
Read’s second murder trial is now in its second week after it began last Tuesday with a prosecutor saying the defendant’s own words will bolster evidence that she killed her police officer boyfriend three years ago and a defense attorney calling the case “the definition of reasonable doubt.”
Read is accused of striking her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, with her SUV in 2022 and leaving him to die alone in the snow outside of a house party in Canton, a suburb about 20 miles south of Boston. She has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence and leaving the scene.
Prosecutors say Read intentionally backed into O’Keefe after she dropped him off at the home of fellow Boston officer Brian Albert and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense says she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.
A mistrial was declared last year after jurors said they were at an impasse, and deliberating further would be futile. Speaking briefly to reporters Tuesday afternoon, Read said she is innocent and praised her legal team.
“I can’t be prouder, and I’m fortunate to have them,” Read said. “We’ve got the truth.”
The biggest difference in the current trial is the lead prosecutor, Hank Brennan. Brought in as a special prosecutor after the mistrial, the former defense attorney has represented a number of prominent clients, including notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger.
Information from The Associated Press was used to compile this report.
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