DEDHAM, Mass. — Jurors in Karen Read’s murder retrial asked four questions about a hung jury, evidence, and charges listed on a verdict slip during the second full day of deliberations on Tuesday.
They are trying to reach a verdict on three charges that Read faces:
- Second-degree murder
- Manslaughter while operating under the influence
- Leaving the scene of a crash resulting in death
After over 12 hours of deliberations without reaching a verdict, legal expert Peter Elikann is unsure whether jurors are close to delivering a verdict.
"When they asked the first three questions and I thought maybe they’re just trying to nail it down, see if it’s okay. Maybe they’re going to come back after lunch and announce the verdict. And then later in the day though, when they kind of asked the question, ‘how about if we’re not guilty on two and we’re kind of deadlocked on one’, what do we do then? And all of a sudden I said, ‘Oh, are they deadlocked, is this going to go on for days like the last time?’" Elikann explained. “They could come back at 9:30 a.m. this morning, maybe they just wanted to sleep on it, or maybe they’re going to be deadlocked for days."
When the court returned from its afternoon lunch break, Cannone announced that jurors had a fourth question: “If we find not guilty on two charges but can’t agree on one charge, is it a hung jury on all three charges or just one charge?”
Cannone informed the court that she would respond to the jury and tell them that the question is “theoretical” and not something she can answer.
“To me, it’s a theoretical question, and we don’t answer theoretical questions. I tell the jurors that they’re not to be concerned with the consequences of their verdict, and that’s exactly what they’re doing here,” Cannone explained.
Despite apparent confusion over the jury slip, Elikann said the slip has been unchanged in the court system for years.
“Cannone is on solid ground here because this is a tried-and-true jury slip that they’ve used for years and it’s been vetted," said Elikann. “She’s not doing anything wrong legally and they can’t they don’t have a big complaint with her."
Still, Elikann concluded that a change to the verdict slip system may be in order.
“The whole point is these jurors are not lawyers, they’re not legal experts, and why should they be confused? Why shouldn’t we have a jury slip that is crystal clear, that makes it easy, that takes them by the hand, step by step, so they’ll understand it?,” Elikann went on “So while there’s no problem with Judge Canone’s order, I think at some point somebody’s got to bring this up to the Supreme Judicial Court or something and say, you know, we got to revise the jury slips, because this is twice in a row the same problem."
Elikann indicated that the initial line of questioning seems focused on the OUI charge and may foreshadow a favorable outcome for Read.
"Maybe they were just going to convict her on that one, which is a minor misdemeanor. I’ve never heard of anybody going into jail without a prior, you know, a criminal record unless there’s incredible extenuating circumstances. You don’t even wind up with a conviction most of the time. First offense for drunk driving, is usually they’ll say, ‘well, continue it for a year, I will suspend your license, take the alcohol education course, they’re out of trouble, and we’ll dismiss it.’"
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