DEDHAM, MASS. (WHDH) - Lawyers for Karen Read filed new paperwork with the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court Thursday, referencing the case of Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Read’s defense attorneys said that there is key information that could impact whether she should be re-tried on all of the charges against her. The defense said that after Read’s first trial ended with a hung jury, several jurors came forward to say they would have acquitted Read on two of the charges.
Her motion to have the charges dismissed in court was denied.
In paperwork filed Thursday, Read’s legal team cited Tsarnaev’s case in their argument. In his case, the Court of Appeals found that a district court should have more thoroughly questioned jurors to make sure they were impartial.
Read’s lawyers said that if Read was found not guilty on some counts, she should be protected against being re-tried for those charges. They noted that a retrial could constitute double jeopardy.
Read is accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him to die in a snow bank outside a home in Canton back in 2022.
Read is charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of a deadly accident. Her retrial is currently scheduled for January.
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