A heated exchange broke out in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial after her defense lawyer pushed a Massachusetts judge to take action against a juror who is reportedly holding up a verdict.
Defense attorney Kevin Reddington argued that the juror was not properly following Judge William Sullivan’s instructions on reasonable doubt and asked that he be removed from the panel.
But Sullivan was not convinced.
The judge rejected the request and became visibly frustrated as Reddington continued to argue that the juror was refusing to apply the law.
The dispute came after the jury had already reported that it was deadlocked.
According to a note from the jury foreperson, one juror had acknowledged having doubts about the case but was allegedly refusing to apply the judge’s instructions on reasonable doubt. The defense then sought to have the juror questioned individually.
Reddington also revealed that the juror was a man.
The jury consists of nine women and three men, meaning the revelation narrowed down which juror the defense was talking about.
Sullivan, however, said the jurors had already confirmed that they were capable of following his instructions and declined to remove the man.
The argument became increasingly tense, with Reddington pressing the judge to give the jury stronger instructions about the prosecution’s burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.
Sullivan pushed back, saying he had already given the jury the required instructions.
The jury has now spent more than six days deliberating without reaching a unanimous decision. It has reported being deadlocked multiple times.
The standoff has put the case on the verge of a mistrial.
Clancy is accused of killing her three children, Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and eight-month-old Callan, at their Massachusetts home in January 2023.
She does not deny killing the children but has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity. Her defense says she was suffering from severe postpartum psychosis at the time.
Prosecutors have argued that Clancy deliberately killed the children and then attempted to take her own life.
With the jury still unable to agree, the dispute over the holdout juror has now become one of the most dramatic moments of the trial.
