The “famously corrupt” Boston police are.
With their “long history of bribery, fraud, and racial bias,” Boston’s police are distrusted by the community they serve. That likely influenced at least some of the jurors in Karen Read’s murder trial (read article here), which resulted in a hung jury.
Jurors were confronted with ambiguous evidence and holes in both prosecution and defense theories of what happened to Read’s boyfriend, a police officer. He was found dead in a snowbank, with traumatic injuries, outside a party house owned by a retired cop where Read says she dropped him off after they had been drinking at a bar.
Prosecutors accuse her of deliberately backing over him with her SUV. The defense argued he was injured in a fight inside the house, then thrown into the front yard by partygoers, and the police are trying to frame her. That’s not convincing, but neither is the prosecution’s case, which relies on a compromised and inept police investigation.
With reliable evidence in short supply on both sides, and a jury unable to agree, it’s obvious what should happen next. The case should be dropped, or Read should be acquitted, because doubt tips the scales in her favor. She doesn’t have to prove her innocence; the state has to prove her guilt, and there’s no clear picture of what happened. That’s more than enough to satisfy reasonable doubt.
