A juror on the deadlocked Lindsay Clancy panel has alleged the lone holdout was fixated on blood evidence inside the Duxbury home where three children were killed.
Paula Devlin, who served on the 12-person jury, said the unidentified holdout was “quiet” for most of deliberations and preferred to “watch videos on his phone” or “speak with his wife.” She claimed he devoted more energy to “policing the tenor of the group’s discussions,” such as whether members were talking over one another, than to explaining his stance that Clancy should be found guilty.
Devlin, one of several jurors to speak out since Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial last week, said the holdout’s main concern “centered on the amount of blood found in the bedroom of the Clancys’ home.” Clancy, a mother of three, had attempted to take her own life after strangling five-year-old Cora, three-year-old Dawson, and eight-month-old Callan, according to prosecutors.
“He thought there was too much blood for the wounds that she had,” Devlin said.
The panel had heard expert testimony on blood spatter, which Devlin said explained “how it all was what it was supposed to be.” When fellow jurors pressed the holdout to elaborate, she alleged he “refused to elaborate or reveal how it linked to why he wouldn’t acquit Clancy.”
“We all asked him what he meant by that, because we heard experts talk about the blood spatter and explain to us how it all was what it was supposed to be,” Devlin added.
The standoff left the remaining 11 jurors struggling to understand his position. Devlin said the dynamic ultimately forced them to send a note to the judge signaling they were deadlocked.
“If he did back up what he was thinking, or even explain it, then all of us would have a different feeling,” she said. “We never would have sent the information to the judge that we did, because that’s part of the process. It’s okay to disagree.”
Foreperson Roni Carlson had previously told NBC10 Boston how close the panel came to unanimity. She said she had begun filling out three verdict forms and signed each one before the holdout intervened.
“I was so excited. There were three forms I had to fill out, and I started filling them out. I wrote my signature on each one, and then he said, ‘But I’m still not going to say she’s not guilty by reason of insanity,'” Carlson said.
Not all jurors have criticized the holdout. An anonymous panelist, identified only as juror number 5, defended him in an interview with WBZ-TV, stating: “He was not the only one that was unwilling to see things from the other side.”
That same juror described their own evolution during deliberations. “Eventually I just felt like the only way to get justice for Cora, Dawson and Callan, and Patrick [Clancy] and her parents and anyone else that was close to this was to get her the help that she desperately needed – and there’s no way she’s getting that help in prison,” the juror said.
Clancy’s trial centered on whether she was criminally responsible when she killed her three children in the family’s Massachusetts home. Prosecutors said she strangled them before attempting suicide, and the case turned on her state of mind and whether she qualified for an insanity defense. The mistrial came after the jury could not reach the unanimous verdict required, with the holdout maintaining his position on guilt despite the other 11 jurors prepared to acquit.
Karyann Parkinson will appear on a child abuse register for seven years.