Karen Read Trial: Mistrial Set Aside

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(NewsNation) — A jury failed to reach a verdict in the trial of Massachusetts woman Karen Read, accused of killing her boyfriend by hitting him with an SUV, prompting a judge to declare a mistrial Monday.

The statement came after nearly 26 hours of deliberations and numerous attempts to avoid a hung jury. The jury first informed Judge Beverly Cannone on Friday that it had failed to reach a unanimous verdict. Friday was the fourth day of deliberations.

Read’s attorneys said the jury had had enough time, but Cannone ordered jurors to continue deliberating.

What happens if the process is invalidated?

The judge ordered the jury to continue deliberating and issued a mistrial, but three times the jurors said they had failed to reach a unanimous verdict.

A mistrial resulting from a hung jury can lead to a new trial if prosecutors decide to retry the case. A judge can rule against a retrial in some circumstances, but prosecutors can often proceed, according to the Fully Informed Jury Association (FIJA).

Meanwhile, Read will not be convicted or acquitted of the charges because the jury never reached a verdict one way or the other. Any bail conditions that were in effect before the trial could be reinstated.

Is it better or worse for the defendant if the jury is unable to make a decision?

Tactically, a hung jury may be more beneficial to the accused than a conviction, according to FIJA. That’s because there are more barriers to appealing a conviction, including rising legal costs. People who appeal a conviction are also not presumed innocent, as they were before the trial.

Karen Read listens as Judge Beverly Cannone reads a note from jurors saying they failed to reach a unanimous verdict during Read’s trial in Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, was charged with second-degree murder after being accused of running over her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, with her SUV in the middle of a nor’easter storm and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa, Pool)

Supporters of Karen Read gather near Norfolk Superior Court, Friday, June 28, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read, 44, is accused of ploughing her SUV into her boyfriend, a Boston police officer, in the middle of a nor’easter and leaving him for dead after a night of heavy drinking. A jury is considering Read’s fate as her trial nears its conclusion. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)

Karen Read arrives at Norfolk Superior Court, Thursday, June 27, 2024, in Dedham, Mass. Read is on trial, accused of killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in 2022. A jury began deliberating in the trial Tuesday. (AP Photo/Steven Senne)

Dedham, MA – April 29: Supporters of Karen Read held signs as they stood a short distance from the road outside the Norfolk Superior Court where her trial was held. (Photo by Jessica Rinaldi/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

What was Karen Read accused of?

Read, 45, of Massachusetts, has been charged with the murder of her boyfriend, 46-year-old Boston police officer John O’Keefe.

Prosecutors say Read hit O’Keefe with an SUV and fled during a 2022 snowstorm. She has pleaded not guilty to felony charges including second-degree murder, manslaughter by vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated and leaving the scene of an accident causing injury or death.

A conviction for second-degree murder could result in a life sentence.

What did the jurors learn at the trial?

O’Keefe was found unconscious in a snowbank outside the home of another police officer in a Boston suburb. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital after suffering hypothermia and head trauma, according to police.

Prosecutors said Read and O’Keefe were at two different bars together, drinking, before she dropped him off. That’s when investigators say Read hit O’Keefe with her car, making a three-point turn. She then drove away, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors presented evidence suggesting O’Keefe asked her friends if it was okay to hit her with her car.

They also said she hit him intentionally, suggesting their relationship deteriorated in the month before O’Keefe’s death.

Read’s attorneys, however, said she was the victim of a police cover-up — an argument prosecutors have denied. Read told ABC News that she “never harmed a single hair on John O’Keefe’s head.”