BOSTON (WWLP) – After three weeks of jury selection, opening statements are set to begin on Tuesday in Karen Read’s second murder trial.

Read is accused of striking John O’Keefe, her police officer boyfriend, with her SUV in 2022 and leaving him to die alone in the snow outside of a house party in the town of Canton, Massachusetts, a suburb about 20 miles south of Boston. She has been charged with second-degree murder, manslaughter while operating a vehicle under the influence, and leaving the scene.

She is returning to court in Dedham on Tuesday to be retried after her widely publicized first trial ended with a hung jury last summer.

During the first trial last year, prosecutors said Read intentionally backed into O’Keefe after she dropped him off at a house party and returned hours later to find him dead. The defense said she was a victim of a vast police conspiracy and that O’Keefe was fatally beaten by another law enforcement officer at the party.

After the trial, the defense unsuccessfully moved to have two of the charges dismissed after they said several jurors came forward to say the group was unanimous in finding Read not guilty of second-degree murder and leaving the scene. The U.S. Supreme Court denied a request from Read to delay her trial on double jeopardy grounds.

The case has gained national attention, with Read herself speaking in many media interviews. She’s also appeared in documentaries about the case, becoming something of a minor celebrity.

Many of the same witnesses are back for the retrial, as are Read’s aggressive defense team. Dozens of her supporters camped out near the courthouse — many carrying “Free Karen Read” signs and wearing pink.

“I’m here for justice,” said Ashlyn Wade, a Read supporter from Canton. “The murderer going to jail and Karen being exonerated, that would be justice.”

Both sides’ opening statements are expected Tuesday. Special prosecutor Hank Brennan said last week that the prosecution plans to use on-camera interviews Read did with the media during their opening statements. Attorney Alan Jackson will speak for the defense, which plans to display a single photograph during their opening statements.

Brennan also stands to benefit from a pretrial ruling from Judge Beverly Cannone that defense attorneys can’t mention potential third-party culprits in their opening statements. But Cannone said the defense will be be allowed to develop evidence against Brian Albert, a retired police officer who owned the Canton home, and his friend Brian Higgins. Lawyers cannot implicate Albert’s nephew, Colin Albert, as they did in the first trial, the judge said.

“I view it as a blow to the defense strategy but not a knockout punch,” Daniel Medwed, a law professor at Northeastern University, said of the ruling. “All the defense needs to do is create reasonable doubt about Karen (Read’s) guilt, and that doesn’t require pointing to an alternative perpetrator as a matter of law.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.