The nation’s highest court on April 28 denied accused killer Karen Read’s petition for a writ of certiorari that would have reviewed her case under the lens of the Constitution’s double jeopardy clause.
Under the clause, a person cannot be prosecuted twice for the same offense.
Read, 44, is accused of having struck her police officer boyfriend, John O’Keefe, 46, with an SUV during a snowstorm in January 2022. He was found unresponsive outside the house party of a fellow Boston police officer in Canton and subsequently died.
Read had worked as a financial analyst and was an adjunct finance professor at Bentley College prior to the incident, while O’Keefe was a 16-year police veteran.
Litigating parties file a petition for a writ of certiorari when they want the U.S. Supreme Court to review the rulings of a lower court. In this case, Read’s lawyers asked the Supreme Court to review the rulings of the Superior Court of Massachusetts in Norfolk County.
Prosecutors argued that the double jeopardy claim amounted to “hearsay, conjecture and legally inappropriate reliance as to the substance of jury deliberations,” while Norfolk Assistant District Attorney Adam Lally said there was never any indication that jurors had reached a verdict on any of the charges.
On April 9, Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson denied the application that would have paused Read’s Massachusetts state court trial until the U.S. Supreme Court decided.
Read’s trial is now in its second week.
Read’s attorneys are Michael Pabian and Martin Weinberg. Pabian did not respond to requests for comment, and Weinberg declined to comment because of a court order.
Prosecutors allege that Read had been drinking when she dropped O’Keefe off at the Canton house party just after midnight and that, during a three-point turn, she rammed O’Keefe and then drove away, allegedly returning hours later to find him in a snowbank.
Read denied the allegations, maintaining her innocence.
During the first trial, Read’s defense attorneys said it was possible that a police officer killed O’Keefe at the house party, implying corruption and suggesting that their client was set up.
