Media digs into Clancy holdout’s past — DeSantis says Florida will take him

BS BULLETIN:

The lone holdout in the Lindsay Clancy trial is facing intense scrutiny after fellow jurors publicly criticized his conduct and NBC10 Boston dug into his personal and court history.
NBC10 reported the juror had previously faced domestic violence allegations and was subject to an active restraining order during the trial; a prior criminal charge was dismissed.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blasted the coverage as a “smear” and offered the juror “asylum” in Florida if he is being harassed.

The lone holdout juror in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial has gone from anonymous citizen to the most scrutinized man in one of America’s biggest true-crime cases.

And Ron DeSantis has seen enough.

The Florida governor jumped into the controversy Friday night after NBC10 Boston published an investigation into the juror’s past, accusing the media of attempting to smear the one man who refused to join the other 11 jurors in finding Clancy not criminally responsible for killing her three children.

“A man objected to allowing a woman to kill her three young kids and get away with it, so NBC is trying to smear that juror, whose identity should be protected,” DeSantis wrote on X.

“Another low for legacy media.”

Then came the offer. “If the juror is being harassed, Florida will provide asylum — I’m sure he’d be welcomed and appreciated.”

The extraordinary intervention comes after days of increasingly personal coverage of the holdout following the mistrial.

Clancy admitted killing her children — Cora, 5, Dawson, 3, and Callan, 8 months — in the family’s Duxbury, Massachusetts, home in January 2023. Her attorneys argued she was suffering from postpartum psychosis and therefore was not criminally responsible.

After roughly 38 hours of deliberations, the jury ultimately divided 11-1 in favor of finding Clancy not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. The holdout wouldn’t budge, and Judge William Sullivan declared a mistrial.

Then the jurors started talking.

Foreperson Ronni Carlson told NBC10 Boston that the holdout acknowledged having reasonable doubt but still refused to vote for acquittal.

Juror Nick Dargie told ABC News that the man couldn’t point to evidence or witness testimony supporting some of his positions and alleged that he used an exercise band and water bottle to reenact the children’s strangulation during deliberations.

“We’re not in here to play detective,” Dargie said. “It’s not a game of Clue.”

Another juror, Paula Devlin, subsequently provided a somewhat more nuanced account.

She told CBS News the jury originally stood at eight favoring a finding of not criminally responsible, two undecided and two favoring murder.

Devlin said both of the dissenting jurors eventually felt “attacked” as the other jurors challenged their positions, and she suggested that dynamic may have made it more difficult for the final holdout to change his mind.

Devlin also revealed that the holdout was a Black man in his 30s and the only person of color on the jury.

Then NBC10 Boston went outside the jury room.

Its investigative team examined court records and interviewed members of the man’s family, reporting that the juror had been charged in 2021 following an alleged domestic violence incident involving his then-wife.

That charge was later dismissed after his former wife declined to testify.

NBC10 also reported that the man’s teenage nephew later obtained a restraining order against him following separate assault allegations and that the order remained active during the Clancy trial.

The station has not publicly identified the juror because the jury list remains impounded and the man himself has not spoken publicly.

That investigation prompted questions about how he answered his juror questionnaire and whether the information should have surfaced during jury selection.

But it also prompted a very different question from DeSantis and others: Why is a private citizen’s life being investigated because he cast an unpopular jury vote?

Conservative outlets quickly rallied around the holdout.

Breitbart described the NBC investigation as the beginning of a “character assassination,” while RedState argued the juror was being subjected to a campaign to “name and shame” him for refusing to go along with the majority.

The holdout hasn’t publicly explained his vote.

Almost everything Americans currently know about what happened inside that jury room comes from people who disagreed with him.

And Devlin’s account suggests the deliberations were considerably more complicated than an obstinate 11-1 split from the beginning.

None of that makes the allegations uncovered by NBC irrelevant.

If a prospective juror failed to disclose information he was legally required to reveal during jury selection, that could become a serious issue.

But the public record currently does not establish how the holdout answered his questionnaire.

For now, the man remains anonymous, the verdict remains unresolved and prosecutors still haven’t announced whether they will try Clancy again.

Her defense attorney, Kevin Reddington, is meanwhile seeking to prevent a retrial, arguing that the mistrial should not permit prosecutors another shot at the case. A hearing is scheduled for Sept. 29.

And if the holdout decides Massachusetts has become a little uncomfortable? Apparently there’s now a standing invitation waiting roughly 1,300 miles south.

MY QUICK TAKE

Eleven jurors talk to the media. The defense attorney unloads on the twelfth. Reporters start digging through the twelfth juror’s divorce, arrest history, restraining orders and rent problems. And the twelfth juror still hasn’t said a word.

You don’t have to agree with his vote to understand why that ought to make every future juror in America a little nervous.

Do your civic duty — but apparently read the fine print: If you happen to be Juror No. 12, somebody may eventually pull your entire file cabinet.

DeSantis offering “asylum” in Florida is vintage DeSantis theater.

But on the underlying question? A juror shouldn’t have to vote with the other 11 to keep his private life private.