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Karen Read quotes ‘Shawshank Redemption’ as attorneys ask Supreme Court to delay retrial
“I’ll take any chance with the Supreme Court,” Read told reporters Monday.
Karen Read’s attorneys have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to pause her upcoming murder retrial until the court decides whether to take up her double jeopardy appeal.
“To quote ‘Shawshank Redemption,’ ‘Hope is a great thing, sometimes the best of things,’” Read told reporters Monday, per video from Boston 25 News. “So I’ll take any chance with the Supreme Court.”
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She added: “I’ve been watching a lot of [movies]. I’ve had some time; I’ve had some time on my hands.”
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Read, 45, is accused of drunkenly and deliberately ramming her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV on a snowy night in Canton in January 2022. However, her lawyers contend she was framed in a vast law enforcement conspiracy.
Read’s first murder trial ended with a hung jury last July, and jury selection for her second trial is underway.
Read’s request to delay her retrial accompanied the petition for a writ of certiorari her lawyers filed with the Supreme Court last week in their ongoing bid to dismiss two of her three charges.
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To hear the defense tell it, jurors in Read’s first trial unanimously — but unofficially — agreed to acquit her of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident, deadlocking only on the charge of manslaughter while operating under the influence. While the jury’s notes to Judge Beverly Cannone leading up to the mistrial appeared to suggest “deep division” on multiple charges, Read’s lawyers said they soon heard from jurors that the jury had actually reached unanimous “not guilty” conclusions on two charges.
The state trial court and Supreme Judicial Court have already rejected Read’s appeal, as have the lower federal courts.
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