Juror Paula Devlin has broken her silence on the deadlocked panel that doomed Lindsay Clancy’s triple murder trial.
Devlin, who sat through weeks of testimony before the Massachusetts case ended without a verdict, told Gayle King on “CBS Mornings” that the jury’s first straw poll revealed a lopsided beginning. “Eight people were leaning toward not responsible, two hadn’t decided and two thought guilty,” she said. The 36-year-old Duxbury mother’s fate appeared to be tilting heavily toward an insanity defense from the outset.
That early advantage for Clancy’s side only grew as deliberations stretched across six days and roughly 38 hours. Devlin said the panel eventually shifted to ten jurors convinced Clancy was not criminally responsible, with just two holdouts still pushing for guilt. The pressure on that shrinking minority intensified dramatically.
“I felt very bad for them because they felt really attacked and there is no way to not do that because that’s where we were talking,” Devlin shared. “Even in normal conversation when it’s pointed at you and you have to defend yourself, it’s a hard thing to do.”
The final obstacle to consensus came down to a single juror. Devlin identified him as a Black man she estimated to be in his 30s. His resistance collapsed, she claimed, after the panel watched video of an interview Clancy had given.
“And then we watched the video of Lindsay’s interview and after that [the holdout] said he had realized that it wasn’t murder in the first degree,” Devlin recounted. “That’s where we saw his doubt.”
That turning point still did not produce unanimity. On day six, the female foreperson sent a note to Judge William Sullivan warning that the holdout was allegedly refusing to follow the law on reasonable doubt. The judge then questioned each juror individually and re-read his instructions on the legal standard.
Sullivan declared a mistrial the following day, leaving Clancy’s case unresolved and prosecutors facing a decision on whether to retry her.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington had asked jurors to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity, arguing she suffered severe postpartum psychosis when she strangled her three children in January 2023. Cora was 5, Dawson was 3, and Callan was just 8 months old.
The case against the former nurse centered on whether she could be held criminally responsible for the killings or whether her documented mental health breakdown rendered her legally insane. Prosecutors highlighted her internet searches and actions before the children’s deaths as evidence of planning and awareness.
The mistrial after nearly 38 hours of deliberations left victims’ family members devastated and legal observers predicting a fraught path forward for any second prosecution. The holdout juror’s race and age, which Devlin volunteered unprompted, immediately fueled online debate about whether those details were relevant to his legal analysis or reflected assumptions within the jury room.
Clancy has pleaded not guilty to murder and strangulation charges.
