BOSTON — As the jury in the Karen Read murder trial convenes for its third day of deliberations, we asked the question: “Is deliberation time a predictor of a verdict?”
Judge Jack Lu retired after nearly two decades on the bench. He’s seen a jury or two in his time.
“I wouldn’t want to be one of the fools who think they know what’s going to happen,” Lu said. “They have very tight jury security, and no one in Massachusetts knows. I’ll just say where I am, no one knows what’s going on in that jury room.”
Lu said you can often tell more about a jury’s mentality by the questions they ask than by the time they spend deliberating.
When the the jury asked the judge on a piece of evidence on Wednesday, it suggested they might take the process piece by piece.
“One of the ways to do this is to start with exhibit number one and go step by step,” Lu said.
Bulger juror on deliberations
Janey Uhlar was a juror during the 2013 trial of Whitey Bulger.
“This is a lot of information. This has been a long process,” Uhlar said. “There could be a lot of discussions going on in the deliberations right now. I can imagine it. I don’t have to imagine it; I know it’s happening. They’re under a lot of stress right now to get it right.”
The two-month trial of Whitey Bulger lasted five days before the jurors reached a conviction. The trial of OJ Simpson lasted eight months and the jurors deliberated for only four hours before deciding to acquit him.
The jury in the Karen Read case deliberated for 14 and a half hours and considered approximately 600 documents evidence to consider.
