Crime
The Norfolk County District Lawyer’s Workplace says it plans to retry the case.
Livestream by way of NBC10 Boston.
Replace 3 p.m.: The Norfolk County District Lawyer’s Workplace has launched a press release saying it plans to retry the case:
A mistrial has been declared within the matter of Commonwealth v. Karen Learn.
Decide Beverly Cannone set a standing convention date of July 22, 2024 at 2 p.m. within the Norfolk Superior Courtroom.
First, we thank the O’Keefe household for his or her dedication and dedication to this lengthy course of. They maintained sight of the true core of this case – to search out justice for John O’Keefe.
The Commonwealth intends to re-try the case.
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Following days of deliberations and a number of notes from the deadlocked jury, Decide Beverly Cannone has declared a mistrial within the high-profile and infrequently contentious Karen Learn homicide trial.
The jury was tasked with figuring out whether or not Learn, 44, drunkenly and deliberately backed her SUV into her boyfriend, Boston Police Officer John O’Keefe, on a snowy night time in Canton two years in the past. Legal professionals for the Mansfield lady had alleged she was framed in a coverup. A unanimous jury is required for any conviction or acquittal, and jurors finally failed to achieve a consensus, regardless of Cannone’s last-ditch effort to interrupt the impasse utilizing the so-called “dynamite cost.”
Cannone’s mistrial declaration leaves prosecutors free to retry the case.
Jurors confronted an uphill battle of their quest for consensus, given the controversial proof at stake in Learn’s case and the extraordinary protection of the trial throughout social media, nationwide information shops, and the blogosphere.
The primary indication of bother got here in a word Friday, when jurors reported they had been unable to achieve a unanimous verdict regardless of an “exhaustive evaluation” and “diligent consideration” of the proof.
Shortly earlier than 11 a.m. Monday, the jury stated it remained at an deadlock.
“Decide Cannone, regardless of our dedication to the responsibility entrusted to us, we discover ourselves deeply divided by elementary variations in our opinions and frame of mind,” Monday’s word learn. “The divergence in our views aren’t rooted in a lack of awareness or effort however deeply held convictions that every of us carry, finally main to some extent the place consensus is unattainable. We acknowledge the load of this admission and the implications it holds.”
Assistant District Lawyer Adam Lally argued the jury hadn’t but accomplished its due and thorough deliberations.
“This jury heard I imagine about 29 days or so of testimony, 657 completely different reveals marked as proof, 74 completely different witnesses who testified earlier than them,” Lally stated. He famous the size of deliberations to this point didn’t even equate to 1 hour of dialogue for every day of testimony.
Nonetheless, protection lawyer David Yannetti famous jurors’ language about “elementary” disagreements.
“Our view is that it’s time for Tuey-Rodriguez, your honor,” Yannetti stated, referring to the set of formal directions usually learn to deadlocked juries. “They’ve come again now twice indicating basically that they’re hopelessly deadlocked.”
Cannone finally sided with the protection, opting to learn the Tuey-Rodriguez cost.
“I believe this has been a unprecedented jury,” she stated. “I’ve by no means seen a word like this reporting to be at an deadlock.”
The Tuey-Rodriguez cost basically tells jurors there’s no motive to imagine one other jury can be higher suited to resolve the case, or that both the prosecution or protection would be capable of provide clearer proof within the occasion of a retrial. The directions additionally remind jurors it’s their responsibility to resolve the case if they will accomplish that rigorously.
With a doable life sentence on the road if Learn had been convicted of second-degree homicide, the stakes had been excessive. Learn was additionally charged with manslaughter whereas working a motorized vehicle underneath the affect and leaving the scene of a deadly accident. The OUI manslaughter cost carries a sentence of 5 to twenty years in jail, and Learn confronted as much as 10 years behind bars if discovered responsible of leaving the scene of a deadly accident.
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