The lead defense attorney for Lindsay Clancy on Thursday asked for a juror to be removed after the jury foreman said that individual appeared to cause the deadlock that has prevented the jury from reaching a verdict in the murder trial two times now.
Massachusetts Superior Court Judge William Sullivan denied the lawyer’s request to remove the juror and sent the jury back to continue deliberating, per The New York Times. The judge later ended deliberations for the day.
After reaching a deadlock two times, the jurors in the murder trial have one more chance to reach a verdict before the judge is able to declare a mistrial. The jury is made up of nine women and three men who got the case a week ago and have been deadlocked since at least Tuesday morning. Sullivan has continued to encourage them to try to reach a unanimous decision to avoid a mistrial.
On Thursday, the jury submitted a question to Sullivan. The judge then read out an explanation to the jury defining “proof beyond a reasonable doubt.”
“A charge is proved beyond a doubt if, after you’ve compared and considered all of the evidence, you have in your minds an abiding conviction to a moral certainty that the charge is true,” Sullivan said, per NBC News.
The judge added that it’s not enough to establish a strong probability that the defendant is “more likely guilty than not guilty.”
When the jurors were sent to resume deliberations, defense attorney Kevin Reddington told Sullivan that one juror was refusing to “listen to the law” and asked for the person to be removed. He said that the individual was ignoring the judge’s instructions around the standard of reasonable doubt, per CNN.
“I don’t feel that it is proper for me to side with one side or the other of the deliberations. I don’t feel it’s appropriate for me to say I agree with one juror or the 11,” Sullivan said as he declined the request, per NBC News.
The judge shared that each juror was brought in individually and questioned about whether they could follow his instructions. He added that each juror said they can at this point.
Jennifer Sprague, a prosecutor in the case, added that there is “no way to determine” how the deliberations are unfolding, in response to Reddington’s request to remove a juror.
Clancy has been accused of murder after strangling her three young children in 2023, per CNN. The prosecution argues that the Massachusetts mother acted “intentionally, rationally and swiftly” to murder her children, while the defense says she should not be held criminally responsible since she was suffering from postpartum psychosis.