Former federal prosecutor Evan Gotlob on Friday said he would be nervous if he were the prosecutor in the ongoing Karen Read murder trial after jurors were unable to reach a verdict after roughly 17 hours of testimony.
Jurors sent a note to Judge Beverly Cannone shortly after 12 p.m. saying their “exhaustive” had not yet yielded a unanimous decision. Cannone told jurors to continue deliberations anyway. But with a lunch break early Friday afternoon, there remained no verdict as of around 2:15 p.m.
“Usually, this is either a hung jury or they’re leaning to acquit,” Gotlob told 7NEWS. “It usually doesn’t take this long to convict somebody.”
“The longer this goes, if I was in the prosecutor’s chair, I would be a lot more nervous here,” he continued.
Read is facing three charges including second degree murder, OUI manslaughter, and leaving the scene of a fatal accident after prosecutors said she hit her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, with her SUV and left him to die outside the Canton home of Brian and Nicole Albert.
Her defense team has said she is being framed, saying O’Keefe actually died after a fight inside the home.
The case went to the jury on Tuesday. By the time they sent their note on Friday, jurors had deliberated for roughly 17 hours.
Gotlob, who has also served as a lawyer on state criminal cases, said the jury might have felt stuck after deliberations Thursday afternoon and gone home for the night to “sleep on it.” With no decision Friday morning, he said it was not surprising to see the jury send a note.
“If a verdict is not reached after a day, usually you end up with something like this,” he said.
Moving forward, he said individual judges have discretion in dealing with situations like the one unfolding in Norfolk Superior Court. With the Read trial, though, he said the judge is likely not ready to declare a hung jury.
“There’s still evidence that they could go through to probably persuade one side or another,” Gotlob said. “So, I don’t think we’re at that point.”
Gotlob said some juries take weeks to decide cases like the Read case, which involved testimony from 74 witnesses and hundreds of pieces of evidence.
For the jury, he said the best way to reach a verdict is to go through specific evidence and testimony.
“Sometimes, jurors don’t recall what was specifically said in key evidence,” he said.
Gotlob said the jury could deliver a verdict on some of the charges against Read and fail to decide on other charges.
If they remain undecided on the murder charge, though, Gotlob said prosecutors would likely refile the charge against Read and seek a new trial.
Though he said media coverage should not impact Cannone’s decisions regarding a hung jury, Gotlob acknowledged the spotlight on the case may have an effect.
“This is a case that has got national attention,” he said. “Obviously, everyone in Massachusetts is very interested in this case. It’s been covered throughout the country. So, the judge is going to err on the side of giving them as much time as possible before she lets it be a hung jury.”
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from Boston News, Weather, Sports | WHDH 7News
Source: https://whdh.com/news/former-prosecutor-reacts-to-developments-in-karen-read-deliberations/
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