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. 

Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University who is not involved in the case, said it’s “quite possible it is heading for a compromise or mercy verdict, a split verdict,” in light of the questions.

Costas Panagopoulos, a professor of political science at Northeastern University, previously told Newsweek: “Irregularities in elections should always be investigated, but the sources of such inconsistencies, which can include error or miscalculation, are not always nefarious. Mistakes can happen.”

“Trump is using the pardon power freely and brazenly,” Daniel Urman, a Northeastern University legal scholar, told me. “The Jan. 6 pardons especially are really a way to rewrite history and frame the rioters and insurrectionists, including individuals who attacked law enforcement officers and others who showed no remorse, as heroes.”

“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.

Guest: Christoph Schuringa, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Northeastern University London

Musk, who acquired X in 2022, has dramatically scaled back the rules that govern what content and behaviours are acceptable on the platform, according to Professor Laura Edelson, who teaches computer science at Northeastern University.