Karen Read murder retrial: Jury selection day 3

Flint McColgan, Boston Herald on Apr 3, 2025

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BOSTON — It’s the third day of juror selection in the Karen Read retrial.

Attorneys have added seven to the final jury pool over the previous two days. There was a total of 19 jurors selected for trial in the first go-around. That meant seven of them would serve as alternates, though the alternates wouldn’t be selected until just before deliberations begin after all the evidence and closing arguments have been presented.

Read, 45, is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years and a 16-year Boston Police officer, with her car and leaving him to die in a major snowstorm on the front lawn of 34 Fairview Road in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.

Case history in brief

She was tried last year on charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene of an accident causing death, but that ended in mistrial on July 1, 2024, after the jury reached an impasse.

Read’s defense team shortly thereafter filed motions arguing that it wasn’t really an impasse and that five jurors had come forward to say that they were ready to acquit Read of the charges of murder and leaving the scene of an accident and were only hung on the manslaughter charge.

That revelation, the defense argued, was tantamount to acquittal and thus to try Read again on those charges would be a violation of her constitutional right to Double Jeopardy protections.

So far, the courts have disagreed. The argument failed with trial Judge Beverly Cannone; the Supreme Judicial Court, which upheld Cannone’s ruling; and U.S. District Court Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV.

The defense then appealed to the federal First Circuit Court of Appeals, which upheld Saylor’s ruling.

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