A Massachusetts judge refused to boot a holdout juror from Lindsay Clancy’s murder trial Thursday, keeping the deadlocked panel in place for a seventh day of deliberations.
Judge William Sullivan denied defense attorney Kevin Reddington’s explosive request after the jury foreperson sent a note revealing one member “refuses to listen the to law” on reasonable doubt. The nine-woman, three-man panel has now deliberated roughly 36 hours over six days without reaching a verdict on whether Clancy, 36, is criminally responsible for killing her three young children.
Reddington launched an impassioned courtroom attack on the juror’s alleged intransigence. “I appreciate the fact that you are allowing us to be heard in public rather than at the sidebar,” he began. “The court has an instruction from the foreperson of that jury that’s been working for a week now, saying that there is one juror who refuses to listen the to law that you’ve given him or her on reasonable doubt, and I suggest respectfully that the soft instruction that you gave them at the sidebar — ‘Can you listen to the law as I instruct you?’ — does not focus on the issue.”
“The question is not sufficient enough,” Reddington continued. “It does not allow any foundation for a motion to remove the juror who refuses to accept your instructions on the law on reasonable doubt.”
The lawyer warned of catastrophic consequences if Sullivan didn’t act. “If we come back here in half an hour with a mistrial because of the juror who has just spurned the instructions of this court, that’s a shame. That’s a real shame,” he said. “That’s why I object to the court’s ruling. I request that we have further inquiry. My motion is to remove this juror who refuses to listen to your instruction on reasonable doubt.”
Earlier at sidebar, Reddington had been visibly emotional, slamming his papers down, raising his voice, and gesticulating while speaking with the judge. His theatrical display did nothing to change Sullivan’s mind.
Courtroom sketch artist Jarva Land caught the attorney in a candid moment just before the jury was instructed again. “I heard Reddington say, ‘Screw it’ right before the jury was instructed again,” Land told reporters.
Sullivan ultimately sided against removal, instead giving the panel fresh instructions on reasonable doubt and ordering them to continue. When that failed to break the impasse, he dismissed the jurors for the day.
The judge instructed the panel to report back to Plymouth County Superior Courthouse at 9 a.m. Friday — a notable scheduling choice given it is the day before Labor Day weekend. The jurors will then begin their seventh day of what have become painfully slow deliberations, now approaching 40 hours since they first received the case last Thursday afternoon.
Clancy faces charges in the deaths of her three young children, a case that has gripped Massachusetts and sparked national debate over postpartum mental health and criminal responsibility. Prosecutors allege the 36-year-old mother planned the killings, while her defense argues she was suffering from severe postpartum depression and psychosis when she strangled her children at the family’s Duxbury home in January 2023.
The trial has stretched well beyond typical jury deliberation timelines for such cases, with each passing day raising fresh speculation about whether the panel can reach consensus. Thursday’s revelation about the holdout juror offered the first concrete explanation for the unusual delay.
Sullivan has not indicated whether he would consider declaring a mistrial if the deadlock persists, though such a move would require finding that further deliberation would be futile. For now, the judge appears committed to keeping the current panel working through the holiday weekend.
The jury is scheduled to resume deliberations Friday morning in Plymouth.
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