In the defense brief filed in September, Read's lawyers said five of the 12 jurors came forward after her mistrial saying they were deadlocked only on a manslaughter count, and they had agreed unanimously — without telling the judge — that she wasn’t guilty on the other counts.
Prosecutors have called on the state's highest court to allow them to retry Karen Read for murder in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend, arguing against defense claims that jurors had reached a verdict against some of her charges before the judge declared a
In a brief filed late Wednesday to the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, prosecutors wrote that there's no basis for dismissing the charges of second degree murder and leaving the scene of the accident. "The defendant was not acquitted of any charge because the jury did not return, announce, and affirm any open and public verdicts of acquittal," they wrote. “That requirement is not a mere formalism, ministerial act, or empty technicality. It is a fundamental safeguard that ensures no juror’s position is mistaken, misrepresented, or coerced by other jurors.
"The trial court had a clear path to avoid an erroneous mistrial: simply ask the jurors to confirm whether a verdict had been reached on any count," the ACLU wrote in its brief. “Asking those questions before declaring a mistrial is permitted — even encouraged — by Massachusetts rules. Such polling serves to ensure a jury’s views are accurately conveyed to the court, the parties, and the community — and that defendants’ related trial rights are secure.
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