Karen Learn requested the Supreme Court docket to dam her ongoing retrial on accusations she killed her police officer boyfriend till the justices can resolve her double jeopardy claims.
Learn faces retrial after a jury final yr failed to achieve a unanimous verdict, resulting in a mistrial. Her case has garnered nationwide consideration and spurred a documentary sequence.
Jury choice started in Learn’s new trial on April 1 in Massachusetts and has now entered its second week. The brand new emergency utility asks to dam the proceedings till the Supreme Court docket can resolve her enchantment.
“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,” Learn’s attorneys wrote to the Supreme Court docket.
Learn is accused of hitting her then-boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, along with her SUV and leaving him in a snowbank outdoors one other officer’s Canton, Mass., dwelling in January 2022, killing O’Keefe.
She faces costs of second-degree homicide, manslaughter whereas working drunk, and leaving the scene of a collision leading to dying. Learn maintains her innocence and claims she is being framed by police.
Finally yr’s trial, the decide declared a mistrial after the jury despatched notes repeatedly expressing they had been at an deadlock. However Learn’s attorneys say they later heard from a number of jurors who indicated they did attain a unanimous determination to acquit Learn of her homicide and leaving the scene costs.
Learn contends the Structure’s Double Jeopardy Clause bars her from dealing with trial on the fees once more, 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 utility will go to Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, former President Biden’s sole appointee to the court docket who handles emergency issues arising from Massachusetts. She might act on the request alone or refer it to the total court docket for a vote.
The request provides to a jam-packed emergency docket on the Supreme Court docket. The Trump administration has filed a half-dozen purposes with the justices that additionally await rulings.
