Daniel S. Medwed

Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University, said it was a mercy or compromise verdict, in which jurors opt for acquittal on the most serious charges but convict on lesser offense when they have doubts about the case but want to hold the person accountable.

At the retrial, both the prosecution and defense adopted a “less is more strategy,” moderating their approach based on what worked in the first trial, said Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University who has followed both of Read’s trials. Both sides called fewer witnesses. 

“It’s quite possible that they’re considering a ‘mercy verdict,’ or a split verdict,” said Daniel Medwed, a Northeastern University law professor who has followed Read’s trials. 

Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University who closely followed the case, said before the verdict that acquittal struck him as a sound result, given the many problems with the investigation and the evidence presented at the retrial.

Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminology at Northeastern University, said the trooper’s texts in the Read case, and the disturbing details in the Birchmore indictment, had brought renewed attention to persistent problems in policing.

“If the charges relate to the relationship when she was under 16, the fact that she was or was not carrying his child [at the time of her death] would seem to be somewhat irrelevant, except it would indicate they had a continuing relationship,” said Daniel Medwed, a professor of law at Northeastern University.

Daniel Medwed, a professor of law and criminal justice at Northeastern University, said part of the fascination with Read and others like Casey Anthony or Amanda Knox comes from the relative rarity of a woman facing murder charges.