Karen Read and the microscopic pieces of red and clear plastic.

It’s been reported that jurors in the Karen Read murder trial were hung on count 2 ,manslaughter. 6 jurors at first, then 8 had decided there was enough evidence to find her guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. It’s been reported that the tiny fragments of taillight, reportedly found in the victims clothing played a big roll for those jurors wanting to convict.

Maureen Hartnet testified she scraped debris from the victim’s clothing into a container. No pictures of this debris are introduced, nor do we hear testimony about what part of the clothing was scraped. There’s also no testimony from this person, who actually examined the clothing about anything embedded in the clothing.

Evidence technicians Christina Hanley and Ashley Vallier testified about the pieces of red and clear plastic , but neither could confirm that they were ever embedded in a shirt.

DA Lally, arguing against a directed verdict, and one of his arguments is, the red and clear pieces of plastic.

So even though we have loose association between the pieces of plastic and them being embedded in the clothing, it’s still asked about to all the defenses expert witnesses. The defense doesn’t object nor challenge the foundation for this evidence.

In closing arguments, one of the last things that Lally mentions is the “microscopic pieces 1/16” of an inch x 1/16”, even though he gets cut off, but it’s one of the last things the jury hears. If the defense had known that this would be something the jury held on to and almost convicted Karen Read of manslaughter, would they have treated it differently?