Karen Learn appeals double jeopardy ruling to SCOTUS

[ad_1] With jury choice underway for her second homicide trial within the demise of Boston Police Officer John O'Keefe, attorneys for Karen Read are interesting a decrease courtroom's ruling that she will not be dealing with double jeopardy to the U.S. Supreme Courtroom.

Learn's first trial ended with a mistrial final 12 months, however her legal professionals have argued that the jury agreed unanimously that she was not responsible of two of the three prices, together with essentially the most severe of homicide, and that retaining these on the books for her second trial is unconstitutionally putting her on trial twice for a similar crime.

This settlement was unannounced at trial, nonetheless.

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Karen Learn exits Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham, Massachusetts, on Wednesday, April 2, 2025. (Dario Alequin for Fox Information Digital)

In keeping with the 149-page submitting, Learn's legal professionals are presenting the excessive courtroom with two questions:

Whether or not a ultimate and unanimous, however unannounced, determination by a jury following trial that the prosecution did not show a defendant responsible of a charged offense constitutes an acquittal precluding retrial underneath the Double Jeopardy Clause. Whether or not a defendant who produces credible proof of such a ultimate, unanimous, and unannounced acquittal is entitled to a post-trial listening to to substantiate the very fact of such acquittal. KAREN READ AND JOHN O'KEEFE: INSIDE EVOLUTION OF BOSTON MURDER MYSTERY SINCE JULY MISTRIAL

Officer John O’Keefe poses for his official headshot. O’Keefe’s girlfriend, Karen Reed, is at the moment on trial for homicide after he was discovered useless exterior a Massachusetts residence in January 2022. (Boston Police Division)

The Fifth Modification ensures constitutional safety from dealing with double jeopardy – trial or punishment for a similar offense twice.

After a mistrial, a retrial can usually proceed – however Learn's legal professionals argue the distinctive circumstances in her case place her underneath double jeopardy on the two charges jurors agreed on however didn't announce.

GO HERE FOR FULL COVERAGE OF THE 2ND KAREN READ TRIAL

<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/03/672/378/johnokeefe_karenread_truecrimedoc_courtesyofkarenread.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/03/1344/756/johnokeefe_karenread_truecrimedoc_courtesyofkarenread.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/03/931/523/johnokeefe_karenread_truecrimedoc_courtesyofkarenread.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/03/1862/1046/johnokeefe_karenread_truecrimedoc_courtesyofkarenread.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> Karen Learn and John O'Keefe pose in an undated photograph. (Karen Learn)

Over days of stalled deliberations, jurors repeatedly despatched notes to the courtroom explaining they have been at an deadlock, and Decide Beverly Cannone instructed them to maintain attempting. Deliberations started on June 25, 2024. By July 1, with jurors nonetheless deadlocked, the decide declared a mistrial.

Of their enchantment, Learn's legal professionals mentioned the decide didn't give counsel for both aspect the chance to talk and dismissed the jury with out asking them in the event that they have been locked on all prices or any prices individually.

KAREN READ JURY SELECTION: DOZENS IN POOL ALREADY HAVE AN OPINION ON THE CASE

Karen Learn sits in courtroom throughout jury choice at Norfolk County Superior Courtroom on Thursday, April 18, 2024 in Dedham, Massachusetts, for her first trial. (David McGlynn/New York Publish by way of AP, Pool)

The following day, a juror recognized as Juror A contacted Learn's lawyer, Alan Jackson, and advised him that the panel had "unanimously agreed that Karen Learn will not be responsible of Rely 1 (second-degree homicide)," in response to the lawsuit.

Textual content messages purportedly despatched from Juror B expressed comparable claims, in response to the lawsuit. Jurors C and D additionally reached out to Learn's workforce with comparable variations of occasions, in response to the submitting.

Moreover, at the least one juror mentioned it in a voicemail for prosecutors.

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<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/07/672/378/Karen-Read-John-OKeefe-Jury-Deliberations-Mistrial_01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/07/1344/756/Karen-Read-John-OKeefe-Jury-Deliberations-Mistrial_01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/07/931/523/Karen-Read-John-OKeefe-Jury-Deliberations-Mistrial_01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/07/1862/1046/Karen-Read-John-OKeefe-Jury-Deliberations-Mistrial_01.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> Karen Learn smiles as protection lawyer David Yannetti speaks to reporters in entrance of Norfolk Superior Courtroom after the decide declared a mistrial after jurors have been unable to succeed in a verdict following a two-month trial on Monday, July 1, 2024 in Dedham, Massachusetts. (AP Picture/Steven Senne)

"It was not responsible on second diploma," Juror B wrote in a textual content shared with one other Learn lawyer, David Yannetti. "And cut up in half for the second cost…I believed the prosecution didn’t show the case. Nobody thought she hit him on function and even thought she hit him on function."

In a cellphone dialog, Learn's legal professionals declare Juror B clarified the second sentence of that textual content, saying it ought to have learn, "Nobody thought she hit him on function and even knew that she had hit him."

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<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/672/378/Karen-Read-John-OKeefe-Murder-Trial-Jury-Deliberations_07.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1344/756/Karen-Read-John-OKeefe-Murder-Trial-Jury-Deliberations_07.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/931/523/Karen-Read-John-OKeefe-Murder-Trial-Jury-Deliberations_07.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1862/1046/Karen-Read-John-OKeefe-Murder-Trial-Jury-Deliberations_07.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> Decide Beverly Cannone appears to be like over the decision slip the jurors should fill out once they attain a verdict in Karen Learn's homicide trial on Wednesday, June 26, 2024 at Norfolk Superior Courtroom in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger by way of AP, Pool)

The homicide cost was "off the desk," in response to the submitting, and Juror A additionally mentioned jurors agreed that Learn was not responsible of leaving the scene.

Learn was arrested on prices of drunken driving, manslaughter and leaving the scene of an accident, and later indicted for the extra cost of second-degree murder after she allegedly backed into O'Keefe exterior a celebration and drove away, leaving him to die on the bottom in a snowstorm.

If her enchantment is profitable, she would simply face the manslaughter cost.

<source media="(min-width: 768px) and (max-width: 1023px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/04/672/378/karen-read-police-officer-john-okeefe-murder-trial_-012-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/04/1344/756/karen-read-police-officer-john-okeefe-murder-trial_-012-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="378" width="672"><source media="(min-width: 1024px) and (max-width: 1279px)" srcset="https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/04/931/523/karen-read-police-officer-john-okeefe-murder-trial_-012-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1, https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2025/04/1862/1046/karen-read-police-officer-john-okeefe-murder-trial_-012-1.jpg?ve=1&tl=1 2x" height="523" width="931"> Karen Learn seems along with her attorneys, Alan Jackson and David Yannetti, through the first day of jury choice at Norfolk Superior Courtroom on Tuesday, April 1, 2025 in Dedham, Massachusetts. (Nancy Lane/The Boston Herald by way of AP, Pool)

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Appellate courts in Massachusetts have already denied her request, discovering that as a result of no verdict had been learn in courtroom, she was not acquitted of any prices and isn't dealing with double jeopardy. Her authorized workforce turned to the nation's highest courtroom this week, asking them to overview a decrease courtroom's determination and for a post-trial listening to on the matter.

Learn may face life in jail if convicted of second-degree homicide at her second trial, which started Tuesday. She has pleaded not responsible and denied involvement in O'Keefe's demise, along with her protection presenting her as a scapegoat being framed by the alleged true killers.