Karen Read asked the Supreme Court to block her ongoing retrial on accusations she killed her police officer boyfriend until the justices can resolve her double jeopardy claims.
Read faces retrial after a jury last year failed to reach a unanimous verdict, leading to a mistrial. Her case has garnered national attention and spurred a documentary series.
Jury selection began in Read’s new trial on April 1 in Massachusetts and has now entered its second week. The new emergency application asks to block the proceedings until the Supreme Court can resolve her appeal.
“Read respectfully submits that the Double Jeopardy protections at stake in her Petition are simply too important to force Read to stand trial for a murder that she contends a prior jury of her peers already acquitted her of, before having an opportunity to petition this Court for review of her constitutional claim, which the district court found to be substantial,” Read’s attorneys wrote to the Supreme Court.
Read is accused of hitting her then-boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and leaving him in a snowbank outside another officer’s Canton, Mass., home in January 2022, killing O’Keefe.
She faces charges of second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating under the influence of alcohol, and leaving the scene of a collision resulting in death. Read maintains her innocence and claims she is being framed by police.
At last year’s trial, the judge declared a mistrial after the jury sent notes repeatedly expressing they were at an impasse. But Read’s attorneys say they later heard from multiple jurors who indicated they did reach a unanimous decision to acquit Read of her murder and leaving the scene charges.
Read contends the Constitution’s Double Jeopardy Clause bars her from facing trial on the charges again, given the revelations.
“Read’s Petition contends that the jury’s decision that she is not guilty of Counts 1 and 3 constitutes an acquittal and precludes re-prosecution on those counts even if unannounced,” her attorneys wrote.
By default, the application will go to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, former President Biden’s sole appointee to the court who handles emergency matters arising from Massachusetts. She could act on the request alone or refer it to the full court for a vote.
The request adds to a jam-packed emergency docket at the Supreme Court. The Trump administration has filed a half-dozen applications with the justices that also await rulings.
