As jurors determine Karen Read’s fate, eyes throughout the country are focused on Massachusetts.
The murder trial, which lasted for weeks, is now nearing its conclusion. A decision might be made as soon as Wednesday.
Not long after the jury’s Wednesday morning deliberations began, one of the members posed a question to Judge Beverly Cannone. However, the question was not directly related to the trial. Instead, the jury requested that they end their discussions at 4 p.m. because one member had a “long-standing scheduling conflict.” The request was granted by the judge without any issues.
When the jury was not present when the court reassembled at around ten in the morning, defence lawyer Alan Jackson persuaded Cannone that the verdict slip was improper. The absence of a not guilty checkbox on the slip was a point of contention for him.
Cannone clarified that a not guilty finding would result from jurors failing to check the guilty block.
“That is not how it should be, and it’s over our strong objection. They need to see that there is a not guilty option,” Jackson said.
Cannone, however, disagreed, stating that she believed the verdict slip to be appropriate. She seemed to observe a reaction from Read that she didn’t like as she was describing that to Jackson.
“Excuse me. This is funny, Ms. Read?” Cannone said. “All right, we’re done.”
Read’s face was hidden behind Jackson on the courtroom feed, but her head was shown trembling in answer to Cannone’s query.
You can be sure that the jury is still thinking about the impactful remarks made by the prosecution and defense during Tuesday’s closing statements as they continue to deliberate.
“Ladies and gentlemen, there was a cover-up in this case, plain and simple,” said defense attorney Alan Jackson during closing arguments.
“There is no conspiracy. There is no cover-up. There is no evidence of any of that beyond speculation, rampage, speculation and conjecture,” said prosecutor Adam Lally.
Read is charged with killing her lover, John O’Keefe, a Boston police officer, following a night of drinking at two different bars in Canton, Massachusetts, with friends and acquaintances. When the night was ended, she allegedly backed her SUV into him on her way to dump him off at 34 Fairview Road, leaving him to perish in a snowbank outside the house.
Read faces charges of manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated, second-degree murder, and fleeing the scene of an accident that results in death.
“I struck him. I struck him. I struck him. I struck him. Four times, that is what the defendant said, according to Lally.
“You have been lied to in this courtroom, and your job is to make sure you don’t ever look the other way,” argued Jackson.
Although the prosecution acknowledges that there are doubts about some of the witnesses they called, they insist that the evidence in this case should not be called into question.
However, the defense argues that you cannot trust the evidence if the people in charge of gathering it had dubious backgrounds.
Since the trial started, there have been dozens of people outside the courthouse; however, hundreds of people were present on Tuesday when the case was sent to the jury.
Although there have been minor confrontations with the supporters of defendant Read, the audience have mostly supported him.
The public’s interest in this murder trial has only increased as it draws to a close; on Tuesday, about 350 supporters of Read were seen outside the courtroom, using laptops and cell phones to view the closing arguments.
According to two legal experts NBC10 Boston spoke with, the jury cannot be ignorant of the extraordinary scrutiny surrounding this case. They think that because they are aware that the public will scrutinize any verdict, the jurors will want to consider slowly and thoughtfully.
Every day, the people outside the court express confidence in the verdict that will be reached by the jury.
“I don’t think it will be long and we will finally have Karen freed,” said one supporter.
“A not guilty verdict is coming back. I mean, the evidence showed it, anyone following this case from the beginning, saw the truth,” said another supporter.
According to the two legal experts, they anticipate an immediate decision.
or a specific category with our 
Comments are closed, but trackbacks and pingbacks are open.