An alternate juror from Karen Learn’s blockbuster first trial has joined the protection group simply forward of the hotly anticipated retrial.
“There have been so many unprecedented things in this case and this is just one of them,” former state Superior Courtroom choose Jack Lu advised the Herald of the event.
Learn, 45, is accused of placing John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years and a 16-year Boston Police officer, together with her automobile and leaving him to die in a significant snowstorm on the entrance garden of 34 Fairview Street in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.
The case has turn into a traditional watercooler smash in each the true world, the place pro- and anti-Learn protesters clashed outdoors the courthouse, and on social media the place partisans skirmish seemingly with out finish. Jury choice for the brand new trial is scheduled to start Tuesday.
The jury in final yr’s trial reported an deadlock in deciding the costs— second-degree homicide, manslaughter whereas working a motorized vehicle below the affect, and leaving the scene of an accident inflicting dying — and Choose Beverly Cannone declared a mistrial.
Former alternate juror Victoria George was added to the protection group on Wednesday in keeping with court docket data. George recognized herself as an alternate juror earlier this month in an interview with Boston’s CBS information. Alternate jurors don’t take part in deliberations and are there to step in if one of many chosen jurors can not take part.
George is listed on the state Board of Bar Overseers database as being admitted to the state bar in 2021 and a present member of the Yannetti Legal Protection Regulation Agency. David Yannetti, the principal of that agency, has represented Learn for the reason that starting of her case.
Lu stated that the first cause he can see that the protection group would need to rent George is for her insights into how the primary trial was introduced to the jury and the way the group may do higher.
So far as Lu can see, there isn’t any authorized downside to hiring a former juror to the protection group, as she, like all jurors, was not aware of “secret information,” however that’s for Cannone to determine.
“Unlike the prosecutor, the defense lawyers are required to zealously advocate for their clients by the ethical rules,” Lu stated. “This has real world implications in terms of tactics.”
Lu stated that the prosecution would “naturally” need to be sure that George’s standing as a former member of the Learn jury not be disclosed within the second trial.
The Norfolk District Legal professional’s workplace declined to touch upon a matter associated to a pending trial and due to a gag order in impact.
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