The white sizzling Karen Learn retrial is formally underway in Norfolk Superior Court docket with the beginning of jury choice this morning.
The Learn trial has been something however quiet since Choose Beverly J. Cannone declared a mistrial final summer season. The Herald has guides on what to know and who to know earlier than this second trial will get began.
Court docket Clerk James McDermott opened courtroom Monday at 9:28 a.m., after which Cannone instantly entered sidebar with the attorneys. The primary set of potential jurors have been introduced in at 9:32 a.m.
Of the roughly 90 candidates within the first group, practically 80 of them raised their hand to point that they had at the least heard of the case, about 40 indicated that they had already fashioned an opinion on the case, and practically half of these agreed that they had fashioned a “bias.”
“We appreciate that you are here, ready and willing to serve,” Cannone advised the jurors earlier than briefly describing the case they might assist resolve. “Our system of justice simply does not work without you. Thank you.”
Learn, 45, is accused of hanging John O’Keefe, her boyfriend of two years and a 16-year Boston Police officer, along with her automobile and leaving him to die in a significant snowstorm on the entrance garden of 34 Fairview Highway in Canton on Jan. 29, 2022.
On Monday, there was no scarcity of additional submitting exercise, together with that of the permitted jury questionnaire; that the protection might increase the thought — a “third-party culprit defense” — that two different males, Brian Albert and Brian Higgins, killed O’Keefe, in the identical capability of the final trial; and that the juror record be impounded forward of the trial for his or her “safety.”
Cannone learn the “lengthy list” of witnesses within the case to the primary spherical of potential jurors.
“As you can imagine, folks, this case could take a while,” she advised them, saying that the trial might take as much as eight weeks, at a excessive estimate.
Jury considerations
The Massachusetts trial courtroom will name 275 potential jurors every day of this primary week in an effort to discover a jury for trial, a spokeswoman stated. That quantity will lower to the still-massive 243 known as per day on the next days — or weeks — till an neutral jury from Norfolk County, which is saturated in Learn protection.
The problem of seating an neutral jury was additional illuminated by one other Monday movement which acquired considerably much less media consideration: the prosecution’s request for Cannone to put out the “parameters of jury empanelment.”
The movement, in lower than a web page, requests that Cannone set pointers for inspecting each the legal data and web and social media searches for potential jurors earlier than they’re sworn in.
“The Court previously allowed the Commonwealth’s motion to check the criminal histories of all sixteen prospective jurors, to determine whether they are qualified to serve before the jury is sworn,” the movement states.
“In the principles of fairness and equity, the Commonwealth inquires of what ground rules or restrictions are in place regarding either party from conducting extraneous inquiries into the qualifications of a potential juror, including internet or social media searches,” the movement continues. “The Commonwealth moves for clear ground rules and boundaries and asks this Honorable Court to advise both parties.”
The movement stood out to retired Superior Court docket Choose Jack Lu, who advised the Herald that most individuals don’t perceive the restrictions in place for accessing legal report data: “Accessing criminal records is electronically logged, and people have been criminally prosecuted for unauthorized access, even police officers searching criminal records for improper reasons.”
“The more interesting part of the motion is requesting guidelines for internet and social media searches,” Lu, who teaches authorized topics at numerous space schools and universities together with UMass Lowell, Boston School, and New England Regulation.
“This seems a bit more challenging to regulate because Google searches and social media are open to all,” he continued in an electronic mail. “It may be that ground rules are appropriate explicitly forbidding communications with potential jurors via social media but it is hard to see how examination of Google results and social media profiles and posts can be forbidden.”
Cannone harassed to the primary spherical of potential jurors that irrespective of how loud or persistent outdoors voices — whether or not the media, social media or bodily protesters outdoors — this case is to be determined “based only upon the evidence in this courtroom and the law … it is just that simple and that important.”
“While public comment will likely continue, the rule of law will be upheld,” she stated.
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