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Karen Read trial: Jurors have yet to return a verdict. Here’s what that could mean.
Jurors are entering their fourth day of deliberations, which could point to some holdouts, according to one legal expert.
As they await a verdict outside Norfolk Superior Court, the pink-clad crowds of Karen Read supporters are louder than ever, fully convinced that the Mansfield woman will be acquitted in the death of her Boston police officer boyfriend.
Inside, however, the courtroom has gone eerily quiet as jurors enter a fourth day of deliberations.
“It is of course impossible to speculate about what is happening behind the scenes, but the longer the deliberations the higher the likelihood there is division within the jury,” said Daniel Medwed, criminal law professor at Northeastern University. “It also seems likely the jury is taking its job very seriously, as it should.”
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That the jury is now heading into its fourth day of deliberations, he said, “suggests that there could be at least some holdouts from what may be the majority position.”
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Following closing arguments Tuesday, jurors were left to ponder two vastly different narratives.
Prosecutors allege that after a night of drinking, Read, 44, accelerated in reverse and intentionally struck John O’Keefe outside a home in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022. Yet Read’s lawyers have alleged a coverup, suggesting O’Keefe walked into an afterparty at 34 Fairview Road sometime after midnight and was brutally beaten, attacked by the family’s dog, and left outside in the snow.
So far, the only insight into the jury’s thinking came on Wednesday, when jurors asked to see a report from the Massachusetts State Police Special Emergency Response Team’s search outside 34 Fairview Road. Judge Beverly Cannone denied their request, telling them they already had all the evidence in the case.
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According to a 2011 Cornell University Law School article analyzing jury deliberations, “Longer trials, more complex cases, more severe charges, and the presence of expert testimony all are associated with longer deliberations.”
Still, exactly what’s going on in Read’s jury deliberations — and what it all means for the “Free Karen Read” movement — is anyone’s guess. In the meantime, the verdict watch stretches into yet another day.
“This does not mean there will be a hung jury, though; we are a long way from that,” Medwed noted. “They could be struggling over one of the counts after having resolved the others; they could just be taking care to review the evidence and adhere to the instructions. We just don’t know.”
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