By Erin Kayata
Whether they were scheduling surgeries around it or building an online audience tracking the legal proceedings, people became obsessed with the second-degree murder trial and retrial of Karen Read.
The case of the Massachusetts woman accused of killing the Boston police officer she was dating captivated not only the region but also the nation, even drawing attention from celebrities such as John Stamos.
The multi-year case came to an end last week when Read was found not guilty of the charges surrounding the death of her boyfriend, John O’Keefe, in 2022.
But what was it about the case that captivated so many? According to Daniel Medwed, a distinguished professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University, it had “the perfect stew of ingredients that the public tends to consume” when it comes to true crime.
“Homicide cases involving women defendants often capture the public’s attention because of how rare they are and how they collide with gender biases and norms,” Medwed said. “(The fact that) the victim was a police officer, the botched police investigation, the possibility of law enforcement officers as alternative suspects, and the small-town dynamics of long-simmering feuds all fanned the flames of conspiracy theories that proliferated online.”
Beyond the specifics of the case, the drama of the trials served as a distraction for people, said Laurie Kramer, applied psychology professor at Northeastern University, as is often the case for public legal battles.
