The decide within the Karen Learn homicide trial has declared a mistrial after the jury stated it was unable to achieve a unanimous consensus on the fifth day of deliberations Monday.
Learn was charged with killing her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O’Keefe, in January 2022.
Prosecutors allege she hit O’Keefe together with her automotive and left him to die in the midst of a snowstorm after the 2 bought into an argument earlier within the day. Learn has strenuously denied the allegations, and her legal professionals alleged {that a} fellow police officer was concerned in O’Keefe’s demise and colluded with others in a cover-up.
The homicide trial for Karen Learn continues in Norfolk Superior Court docket, June 17, 2024, in Dedham, Mass.
Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe through AP, Pool
She had pleaded not responsible to second-degree homicide, manslaughter whereas working a motorized vehicle below the affect and leaving the scene of a deadly accident.
After jurors informed the court docket earlier Monday that they had been unable to realize a consensus, Decide Beverly Cannone learn them the Tuey-Rodriguez directions and had them return to their deliberations. Per Tuey-Rogriguez, the decide can be compelled to declare a mistrial if the jury returned as soon as extra undecided.
In a notice to the court docket Monday afternoon, the jury stated it was unable to achieve a unanimous consensus regardless of an exhaustive deliberation course of.
“Regardless of our rigorous efforts we discover ourselves at an deadlock,” the notice, as learn aloud by Cannone, stated. “The deep division shouldn’t be as a result of lack of consideration however to a extreme adherence to our private beliefs and ethical compasses. To proceed to deliberate can be futile.”
In response, Cannone acknowledged, “Your service is full. I’m declaring a mistrial.”
A standing convention has been scheduled for July 22 within the case.
Karen Learn appears again throughout her homicide trial at Norfolk County Superior Court docket in Dedham, Mass., June 20, 2024.
David Mcglynn/AP
The Norfolk District Lawyer’s Workplace stated it plans to retry the case.
First, we thank the O’Keefe household for his or her dedication and dedication to this lengthy course of,” the district lawyer’s workplace stated in an announcement. “They maintained sight of the true core of this case — to search out justice for John O’Keefe.”
Exterior the courthouse in Dedham, Massachusetts, Learn’s attorneys stated they won’t cease combating.
“Of us, that is what it appears like whenever you convey false expenses towards an harmless individual,” her lawyer, Alan Jackson, informed reporters. “The commonwealth did their worst. They introduced the burden of the state primarily based on spurious expenses, primarily based on compromised investigation and investigators and compromised witnesses. That is what it appears like. And guess what? They failed. They failed miserably, and so they’ll proceed to fail.”