The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!
The Daily BS • Bo Snerdley Cuts Through It!

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Lone Clancy holdout was jury’s only Black member; Gayle King visibly shocked

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BS BULLETIN:

  • The lone juror who prevented Lindsay Clancy from being acquitted by reason of insanity was the only Black member of the jury, according to a fellow juror.
  • Other jurors say the panel ultimately stood 11-1 and accuse the holdout of acknowledging reasonable doubt while still refusing to acquit.
  • The revelation comes as Clancy’s attorney asks a judge to prevent prosecutors from trying her again for killing her three children.

The remarkable fallout from the Lindsay Clancy mistrial just took another turn.

The lone holdout who prevented an 11-1 jury from acquitting Clancy by reason of insanity was also the only Black juror on the panel, according to a fellow juror speaking publicly about the deliberations.

The disclosure comes amid a flood of extraordinary accounts from jurors following last week’s mistrial in the Massachusetts mother’s murder case.

Clancy admitted strangling her three children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — in January 2023. The central question at trial wasn’t whether she killed them, but whether severe mental illness rendered her not criminally responsible.

Her defense argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.

After seven days of deliberations, jurors couldn’t reach the unanimous decision required for a verdict. Multiple jurors have since said the final split was 11-1 in favor of finding Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity.

The lone holdout has not publicly identified himself. But fellow juror Nick Dargie has now revealed another detail about the man. According to Fox News, Dargie said the holdout was the jury’s only Black member.

That fact alone says nothing about why the juror reached his conclusion. But it adds an intriguing wrinkle after race became part of the broader public debate surrounding the extraordinary support movement for Clancy.

As we reported earlier, an Oprah Winfrey program examining the case featured OB-GYN Dr. Kameelah Phillips arguing that women of color imprisoned under comparable circumstances haven’t received the same public compassion showered on Clancy. Phillips called for the same “pink shirts and energy” for those women, drawing applause from the audience.

Inside the Clancy jury room, however, the panel’s only Black juror was apparently the one person unwilling to acquit her. And according to several fellow jurors, the disagreement became deeply contentious.

Dargie told ABC News that the holdout at one point took an exercise band — the type of object Clancy used to strangle her children — wrapped it around a water bottle and pulled on it in an apparent reenactment.

“I was just so shocked that he did that,” Dargie said.

Dargie also alleged that when he repeatedly asked the holdout to point to evidence or witness testimony supporting his position, the juror couldn’t do so.

Three other jurors have offered their own account. Jury foreperson Roni Carlson told NBC10 Boston that the holdout eventually acknowledged having reasonable doubt after jurors rewatched a forensic psychologist’s interview with Clancy.

“He admitted he had reasonable doubt,” Carlson said.

She said she became so convinced a unanimous verdict was coming that she began filling out the verdict forms. But according to Carlson, the holdout still refused to find Clancy not guilty by reason of insanity.

Not every juror who has spoken publicly has piled on him.

Juror No. 5 told WBZ-TV that she initially favored conviction herself and defended the holdout to an extent, saying there were “big personalities” on the jury and that he wasn’t the only person who initially struggled to consider the opposing view.

The holdout himself has not publicly given his version of what happened inside the jury room. Judge William Sullivan ultimately refused the defense’s request to remove him and declared a mistrial after the jury remained deadlocked.

Now Clancy’s attorneys are trying to make sure there isn’t another trial. Defense attorney Kevin Reddington has filed a motion asking Sullivan to acquit Clancy rather than allow prosecutors to retry her. A hearing is expected Sept. 29.

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