It’s the same courtroom, the same judge, and nearly all of the same players — but it’s a whole different atmosphere inside Norfolk County Superior Court in Massachusetts, for the retrial of Karen Read, who is accused of murdering her boyfriend John O’Keefe.

Last year’s explosive trial divided the city of Boston, and eventually the entire country, over the question of whether Read backed into and ran over O’Keefe in the early hours of January 29, 2022 — or whether O’Keefe, who was headed to a late-night house party in suburban Canton full of police officers like himself, had in fact been killed inside the house, in front of witnesses who then staged the scene outside in the snow.

While that might seem like a question that should be easy to answer, in court it was anything but, thanks mainly to a botched police investigation led by now-former state trooper Michael Proctor. Proctor’s conduct shifted an alleged case of deadly domestic violence into a public referendum on Boston police corruption: He made reprehensible comments about Read in texts with his co-workers, including misogynistic slurs, and seemed to view her as guilty before he did any investigation — an investigation in which he allegedly lied and obscured evidence. His testimony was so damning for the prosecution in the first trial that he was ultimately fired, a fate which almost never befalls troopers in Massachusetts.

By contrast, Read was a ready-made cause celèbre, a “girl next door” college professor turned outspoken advocate for her own innocence. Depending on your perspective, she was either an innocent victim of the system or a manipulative femme fatale — and audiences were eager to pick a side.

The police mishandling of the case, along with a lot of arguably weird behavior from the party attendees, gave the defense plenty of room to argue its conspiracy case in earnest. The result was a mistrial — though according to four of the jurors, the jury actually wasn’t all that divided. They were reportedly torn on the weakest of the charges — leaving the scene of a fatal accident — but had reportedly intended to find Read not guilty on the main charges of second-degree murder and leaving the scene of a fatal accident. They inaccurately told the judge that they were deadlocked on all the charges instead.

That series of fiascos set the stage for the current retrial, and the addition of special prosecutor Hank Brennan, who now has the advantage of knowing most of what the defense’s arguments will be in advance. Still, the prosecution has to overcome the specter of Proctor, as well as what the defense, and Read’s legions of supporters, claim as reasonable doubt pertaining to nearly every piece of evidence in the case.

“The conventional wisdom is that the second trial is better for the prosecution,” Mark Geragos, an attorney giving........

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