(27 Jun 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
++AUDIO AS INCOMING++
++CONTINUOUS SHOT++
POOL
Dedham, Massachusetts – 26 June 2024
1. Defense attorney for Karen Reed disputes jury forms with Judge Beverly Cannone
UPSOUND (English) Judge Beverly Cannone, Norfolk County Superior Court:
"All right. So why are we out here?"
Alan Jackson, Defense Attorney:
"Your honor, I just saw the verdict forms and, as we discussed yesterday, the amendments court indicated that it would make on the verdict forms have not been made."
Cannone: "Oh, no. No. Okay, okay. I did not say I’d make it. I said I’d think about it. I said I was tired and I needed to think about it."
Jackson: "What you said before you were tired and you needed to think about it was you agreed that there needs to be not guilty options for the subordinate charges…"
Cannone: "No."
Jackson: "… under count two."
Cannone: "I said that it made sense to me, but no, I did not change it upon looking at it because the verdict slip… this verdict slip, as submitted to the jury, is exactly how it always is in Massachusetts."
Jackson: "Can I ask you a question? I don’t really care how it always is in Massachusetts. I care about whether or not it’s appropriate…"
Cannone: "It’s appropriate."
Jackson: "Are different things."
Cannone: "It’s appropriate."
Jackson: "I’d make my argument, if you wouldn’t mind judge, why it’s not appropriate. For a superior charge, they have to decide that she is not guilty of the superior charge and that is the starting point of whether or not she is guilty or not guilty of any subordinate charge, often called a lesser included. Once they decide that she’s not guilty of the superior charge, now there’s two … two … two additional charges that they’ve been instructed they must decide whether she’s guilty or not guilty. How do they decide that she’s not guilty of the first alternate charge, involuntary manslaughter?"
Cannone: "Okay. Anything else you want to say, Mr. Jackson?"
Jackson: "I’d like an answer from the court. How do they decide that she’s not guilty of involuntary manslaughter on that verdict?"
Cannone: "That’s their decision to make."
Jackson: "And how do they make it if they don’t have an option to check a box that says not guilty?"
Cannone: "They don’t check the box that says guilty, do they? And then when they go to the next … the next block, they don’t check the block that says guilty. And on the top you’re left with not guilty. Okay."
Jackson: "So it’s the … it’s the absence of the check mark that the court determines is the not guilty finding by the jury."
Cannone: "Yes, that’s what the verdict slip reads. It reads not guilty if they don’t check block two, three or four. The verdict slip reads not guilty. Okay. That’s how it is, Mr. Jackson."
Jackson: "Well, apparently that’s how it’s going to be, because it’s the court’s order. That is not how it should be and it’s over our strong objection. They need to … to see that there is a not guilty option for the subordinate charges. If they come back guilty on, for instance,
involuntary manslaughter, that’s immediately appealable. They didn’t have an option on the verdict form to find her not guilty. It’s almost like the court is directing a verdict to the subordinate charges."
Cannone: "Okay. I disagree with you. Mr. (David) Yannetti you’ve seen verdict slips exactly like this. Okay?"
David Yannetti, Defense Attorney: "I actually haven’t, your honor."
Cannone: "Have you had no lesser includeds?"
Cannone: "Okay. I disagree with you."
Jackson: "All right. But I don’t see …"
Trial Court Officer: "All rise to the court, please."
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